Council Common Position of 23 July 2001 on the fight against ballistic missile proliferation
Date: 2001-07-23
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: ballistic missile, international negotiations, non-proliferation of arms, the EU's international role

27.7.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 202/1

(Acts adopted pursuant to Title V of the Treaty on European Union)

COUNCIL COMMON POSITION

of 23 July 2001

on the fight against ballistic missile proliferation

(2001/567/CFSP)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in partic-
ular Article 15 thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

The European Council meeting in Göteborg on 15 and
16 June 2001 adopted a Declaration on Prevention of
Proliferation of Ballistic Missiles.

The Council (General Affairs) adopted on 14 May 2001
conclusions on Missile non-proliferation.

The proliferation of ballistic missiles capable of carrying
weapons of mass destruction is an issue of concern to
the Union.

The strengthening of international norms and political
instruments to prevent the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction and their means of delivery is of prime
importance to the Union which is committed to the
reinforcement of disarmament and non-proliferation
multilateral

instruments.

The Union sees an urgent need for a global and multilat-
eral approach to complement existing efforts against
ballistic missile proliferation.

The Union therefore strongly supports the draft Inter-
national Code of Conduct against ballistic missile prolif-
eration (hereafter referred to as ‘the Code’) which has
been elaborated among the Members of
the Missile
Technology Control Regime (MTCR), and which has
been distributed to all countries with an invitation to
join this effort. The text of the Code will be reconsidered
in light of the comments received from other countries.

The Code is the most concrete and advanced initiative in
this field and as such poses the best chance to achieve
results in the short term.

The Code will be a politically binding document. The
Union expects that it will have a positive influence on
other initiatives to address the proliferation of ballistic

missiles. The Union considers that after its adoption the
Code could be of interest to the United Nations,

HAS ADOPTED THIS COMMON POSITION:

Article 1

The objective of the Union shall be to curb ballistic missile
In order to achieve this objective, the Union
proliferation.
supports the universalisation of the Code.

Article 2

The Union shall actively support an ad hoc international nego-
tiating process to finalise the Code, leading to an International
Conference for its adoption no later than 2002.

The process, which should be based on the Code, should be
transparent and inclusive, enabling any State
kept open,
wishing to subscribe to the code to participate in its elabora-
tion on an equal basis.

Article 3

The Union will pursue this initiative in full transparency with
all other interested parties.

Article 4

This Common Position shall take effect on the date of its
adoption.

Article 5

This Common Position shall be published in the Official
Journal.

Done at Brussels, 23 July 2001.

For the Council

The President

A. NEYTS-UYTTEBROECK