European Parliament resolution on the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons (BTWC), cluster bombs and conventional arms
Date: 2006-11-16
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: biological weapon, chemical weapon, conventional weapon, international convention, non-proliferation of arms, weapon of mass destruction

21.12.2006

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Official Journal of the European Union

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Thursday 16 November 2006

17.
Calls on the Council and the Commission to continue to guarantee, together with the international
community, essential humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population; demands that the TIM be reinforced
and extended in terms of duration and resources; calls on the Israeli government urgently to resume the
transfer of withheld Palestinian tax and customs revenues;

18.
Calls on Israel to lift its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, to facilitate trade between the Palesti-
nian territories, Israel and the world as a whole, to promote economic development in the Gaza Strip for
the benefit of both Palestinians and Israelis, and to permit the movement of people at Rafah, in compliance
with the Agreement on Movement and Access and the EU Border Assistance Mission, as well as at Karni
and at other border crossings in the Gaza Strip; calls on the EU to face its full responsibility on the imple-
mentation of this agreement;

Reiterates its call for the immediate release of the Palestinian ministers and legislators in Israeli

19.
custody and of the abducted Israeli soldier;

Calls on the Council to make every effort to convene an international peace conference — along the
20.
lines of the 1991 Madrid Conference — in order to find a comprehensive, lasting and viable solution to the
problems in the area, based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, and considers that a unilateral
approach by any of the parties concerned must be rejected;

21.
Considers the involvement of the League of Arab States to be essential in this context; considers the
League's 2002 ‘Beirut Plan’, as well as the 2003 Geneva Initiative, to be important contributions to the
negotiations, which should be duly taken into account;

22.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the High Represen-
tative for the CFSP, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the UN Secretary-General, the
President of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Israeli Government and Knes-
set, the governments and parliaments of the United States and the Russian Federation, and the Secretary-
General of the League of Arab States.

P6_TA(2006)0493

Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention

European Parliament resolution on the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin
Weapons (BTWC), cluster bombs and conventional arms

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Third Review Conference on the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional

Weapons (CCW), taking place in Geneva from 7 to 17 November 2006,

— having regard to the Sixth Review Conference on the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention

(BTWC) to be held in Geneva from 20 November to 8 December 2006,

— having regard to Council Joint Action 2006/184/CFSP of 27 February 2006 in support of the Biologi-
cal and Toxin Weapons Convention, in the framework of the EU Strategy against the Proliferation of
Weapons of Mass Destruction (1), the objectives of which are to promote the universality of the BTWC
and support its implementation by State Parties in order to ensure that State Parties transpose the
international obligations of the BTWC into their national legislation and administrative measures,

— having regard to the EU Action Plan in respect of the BTWC, which was agreed in parallel with the
Joint Action and in which Member States undertook to submit confidence-building measures returns to
the United Nations and lists of relevant experts and laboratories to the United Nations Secretary-Gen-
eral to facilitate any investigation into alleged chemical and biological weapons use,

(1) OJ L 65, 7.3.2006, p. 51.

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Thursday 16 November 2006

— having regard to Council Common Position 2006/242/CFSP of 20 March 2006 relating to the 2006
Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) (1), the objectives which
are to strengthen further the BTWC and promote a successful outcome to the Sixth Review Conference,

— having regard to the European Security Strategy and the EU Strategy against the Proliferation of Weap-
ons of Mass Destruction, adopted at the Brussels European Council of 12 to 13 December 2003, and
its resolution of 17 November 2005 on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: a role for
the European Parliament (2),

— having regard to Rule 103(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas the BTWC, which was opened for signature in 1972 and entered into force in 1975, is the first
multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire category of weapons, and whereas it currently has
155 States Parties, with a further 16 having signed but not yet ratified the Convention,

B. whereas the Sixth Review Conference, which will take place in Geneva from 20 November to 8 Decem-
ber 2006, will be the first opportunity for States Parties to examine the operation of the Convention
since the Fifth Review Conference ended in 2002, and whereas it will provide the States Parties with the
opportunity to reconfirm their commitment to the complete prohibition of biological weapons and to
address any problems or shortcomings in the operation of the Convention,

C. whereas the first part of the Fifth Review Conference ended in failure, largely owing to the US Admin-
istration's withdrawal from the negotiations on devising a legally-binding compliance-strengthening
mechanism,

D. whereas, although the number of signatories is steadily growing (100 to the introductory framework
agreement in January 2006), the CCW is far from universal and whereas the number of signatories is
substantially lower for its five protocols which contain the practical implementing provisions of the
Convention,

1.
Stresses that the objective of the European Union should be to build on the success of the BTWC
regime, to further strengthen the BTWC and to promote a successful outcome to the Sixth Review
Conference;

2. Welcomes the Council and Commission's continuous diplomatic action to keep alive international
efforts to strengthen the BTWC and recognises the EU's role in promoting the exploration of voluntary
non-binding inspections as ‘confidence-building measures’ and the strengthening of national legislation in
the run-up to the Review Conference;

Attaches, therefore, great importance to a thorough and full review of the operation of the BTWC in

3.
order to identify, discuss and agree on the measures to be taken to further strengthen the Convention;

4.
Calls on the Council and Member States to promote the accession of all States to the BTWC, including
by calling on all States not party thereto to accede to the BTWC without further delay and working towards
a declaration that the ban on biological and toxin weapons is a universally binding rule of international law;

Encourages the EU, therefore, to take up this issue in the transatlantic fora, in particular NATO, and to
5.
persuade the US administration to move away from its unilateral point of view and to contribute to the
relaunch and enhancement of the multilateral framework;

Calls on the Council and Commission to promote full compliance with the obligations under the
6.
BTWC and, where necessary, the strengthening of national implementation measures, including penal legis-
lation and control over pathogenic micro-organisms and toxins in the framework of the BTWC;

7.
Calls on the Council and Member States to contribute to the improvement of the mechanisms for
verifying compliance by the States Parties by promoting efforts to enhance transparency through increased
exchange of information among States Parties, including identifying measures to assess and enhance the
country coverage and the usefulness of the Confidence Building Measures mechanism;

(1) OJ L 88, 25.3.2006, p. 65.
(2) Texts Adopted, P6_TA(2005)0439.

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8.
Calls on the Council and Member States to promote compliance with obligations under UN Security
Council Resolution 1540, in particular to eliminate the risk of biological or toxin weapons being acquired
or used for terrorist purposes, including possible terrorist access to materials, equipment and knowledge
that could be used in the development and production of biological and toxin weapons;

Thursday 16 November 2006

9.
Calls on the Council and Member States to promote consideration of, and decisions on further action
on, the work undertaken to date under the intersessional programme during the period 2003 to 2005 and
the efforts to discuss and promote common understanding and effective action in particular on: enhancing
international capabilities for responding to, investigating and mitigating the effects of cases of alleged use of
biological or toxin weapons or suspicious outbreaks of disease; strengthening and broadening national and
international
institutional efforts and existing mechanisms for the surveillance, detection, diagnosis and
combating of infectious diseases affecting humans, animals and plants; the content, promulgation and adop-
tion of codes of conduct for scientists in the field relevant to the BTWC in order to raise awareness of the
BTWC and to help relevant actors to comply with their legal, regulatory and professional obligations and
ethical principles;

10.
Calls on the Council and Member States to support a further intersessional work programme during
the period between the Sixth and Seventh Review Conferences, to identify specific areas and procedures for
further progress under this work programme and to promote the convening of a Seventh Review Confer-
ence of the BTWC to be held no later than 2011;

11.
Calls upon the EU and its Member States to work hard to ensure that the scope of Protocol III to the
CCW on Incendiary Weapons is expanded in order to prevent the further use of white phosphorus shells
against military and civilian targets and to stop the use of (depleted) uranium warheads;

12. Welcomes the fact that Protocol V to the CCW on Explosive Remnants of War entered into force on
12 November 2006 and has therefore become binding international law; stresses that this means that States
must clear their territories of unexploded ordnance to reduce the number of civilian casualties following
conflicts; also stresses that this Protocol obliges those parties responsible for the remnants to assist in their
clearance, even if the territory concerned is not under their control; insists that this Protocol applies to all
types of unexploded ordnance, including cluster munitions;

13.
Is nevertheless convinced that many more States should sign and ratify the CCW and its five Proto-
cols, and calls upon the Council and the Commission to do everything possible to ensure that all Member
States duly sign and ratify Protocol V and that all countries receiving disarmament assistance sign and ratify
the protocol as well, even if so far they have not acceded to the CCW (e.g. Lebanon);

Calls upon the EU and the Member States to demand — in the spirit of the CCW's aim of establish-
14.
ing protocols on relevant weapon-systems when the need arises and pending a specific Convention on this
issue — the creation of a specific Protocol VI to unambiguously ban the production, stockpiling, transfer
and use of all types of cluster munitions (fragmentation bombs);

In this light, welcomes in particular the positive response by a coalition of more than 30 States
15.
(amongst them many Member States,
including Belgium, Sweden, Germany, France, Austria, Denmark,
Spain and the Czech Republic) to the call made by both Kofi Annan and Jan Egeland at the beginning of
the CCW Review Conference for negotiations to start without delay to establish a comprehensive and
effective convention to ban cluster munitions worldwide, in the same way as has been done for anti-per-
sonnel mines; calls on the EU and all Member States to support this initiative as actively as possible;

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16.
Calls upon all Member States, the Council and the Commission to work hard to ensure that, within
the foreseeable future, both the BTWC and the CCW are equipped with a permanent secretariat to oversee
their successful implementation, along the lines of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weap-
ons, which was created for that purpose under the Chemical Weapons Convention;

17.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the parliaments and
governments of the Member States, the parliaments and governments of the States Parties to the BTWC and
CCW and the appropriate specialised NGOs.

P6_TA(2006)0494

A Baltic Sea Strategy for the Northern Dimension

European Parliament resolution on a Baltic Sea Region Strategy for the Northern Dimension
(2006/2171(INI))

The European Parliament,

— having regard to its resolution of 16 November 2005 on the future of the Northern Dimension (1),

— having regard to the Guidelines for the Development of a Political Declaration and Policy Framework
Document for the Northern Dimension policy from 2007, as approved by the Northern Dimension
Ministerial Meeting held in Brussels on 21 November 2005,

— having regard to the Commission's 2005 Annual Progress Report of 2 June 2006 on the Implementa-

tion of the Northern Dimension Action Plan (SEC(2006)0729),

— having regard to the Second Northern Dimension Action Plan 2004-2006, as endorsed by the Euro-

pean Council held in Brussels on 16 and 17 October 2003,

— having regard to the Chairman's conclusions of the 6th Baltic Sea States Summit held in Reykjavik on

8 June 2006,

— having regard to the EEA Consultative Committee's resolution and report on the Future of the Northern

Dimension Policy of 25 June 2006,

— having regard to the work of the ‘Baltic Europe’ Intergroup in the European Parliament,

— having regard to Europe's Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region adopted by the ‘Baltic Europe’ Intergroup in

the European Parliament,

— having regard to the work of the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the Baltic Sea Parliamentary

Conference,

— having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the opinion of the Committee on

Industry, Research and Energy (A6-0367/2006),

A. whereas the Northern Dimension forms a wide framework covering all the Northern Regions — the
Baltic Sea and Barents Regions and the Arctic — and all policy areas, both external and internal,

B. whereas the Northern Dimension policy has the potential to help to promote regional and cross-border
cooperation for further economic growth and to identify joint responses to common challenges, but
has not to date been able to fully fulfil its potential to address the variety of issues pertinent to the
region,

(1) Texts Adopted, P6_TA(2005)0430.