WRITTEN QUESTION E-3078/01 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. European position on the development of an anti-missile shield by the United States.
Date: 2001-11-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: ABM Agreement, United States, anti-missile defence, common foreign and security policy, defence policy, international security

20.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 147 E/91

(2002/C 147 E/096)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3078/01

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(13 November 2001)

Subject: European position on the development of an anti-missile shield by the United States

As the answers to Questions E-0049/01 (1) and E-1739/01 (2) make clear, the fifteen EU Member States
have still not arrived at a common position on the US proposal to build an anti-missile shield (National
Missile Defense).

Nevertheless, on a number of occasions the issue of the anti-missile shield has been placed on the agenda
for discussions between Javier Solana, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security
Policy, and his US counterparts. In those discussions, Solana has passed on the views of a number of
Member States concerning the importance of achieving world stability by means of an agreed security
framework.

At the conference on the revision of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, held in 2000 in New York, the
European Union emphasised the importance of the ABM Treaty signed by the US and the Soviet Union in
1972 as one of the keys to strategic stability.

Does the Commission intend, pursuant to Article 22 of the EU Treaty, to ‘submit proposals to the Council’
with a view to drawing up a common European position on the building by the United States of an anti-
missile shield (National Missile Defense)? If not, why is the Commission not prepared to do so, in view of
(a) the fact that the anti-missile shield may represent a breach of the ABM Treaty signed in 1972, and (b)
the importance of this issue for the common foreign and security policy?

(1) OJ C 235 E, 21.8.2001, p. 102.
(2) OJ C 40 E, 14.2.2002, p. 97.

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(20 December 2001)

European position on the development of an anti-missile shield by the United States.

Four points should be made:

> The ABM Treaty (1) signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972 is, as the Council points
out in its reply to question E-1739/01, a bilateral treaty (to which Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan
became parties in 1997).

> The EU has already conveyed to the United States on a number of occasions its concern that the
Treaty might be denounced > and in particular that the United States might unilaterally back out >
without another instrument conducive to world stability being adopted in its place.

> The EU has stressed to the United States the need for wide-ranging and transparent consultations with
the allied and other countries concerned on an issue intrinsic to the international strategic balance.

> The Council has adopted a number of official positions on the non-proliferation of nuclear missiles in
a multilateral framework (Council conclusions of 14 May 2001, the Göteborg European Council’s
declaration of 16 June 2001, the common position of 23 July 2001).

The Commission therefore feels that the EU has taken appropriate action and believes that it should pursue
this course of action,
taking account of developments in the matter, reiterating its views at every
opportunity and making sure that its concerns are taken on board.

(1) Banning the deployment of anti-ballistic-missile systems.