English: The Assembly, (i) Aware of the growing threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missile technology and that in an era of globalisation, with more and more countries, including a number of politically unstable countries, having access to both, they could end up in the hands of terrorists; (ii) Recalling that the concept of mutual assured destruction may not be applicable when dealing with terrorists and regimes that do not respond to this form of deterrence; (iii) Bearing in mind that a number of countries are working on WMD and missile programmes, in many cases using home grown technology which tends to be less susceptible to export control measures; (iv) Noting that the United States’ determination to develop a broadly based layered Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) was arrived at through support from both Democrat and Republican Administrations and from Congress; noting also the progress that has already been made in deploying the first components of that system; (v) Welcoming US willingness to extend the protection provided by it to allied countries; (vi) Aware that for such a system to work effectively, extremely rapid decision-making is required, limiting the scope for collective involvement in the event of a missile attack; (vii) Convinced that joint doctrinal work and common threat analysis and assessment could create conditions for rapid decision-making acceptable to all, in particular within the Alliance; (viii) Convinced that the different levels of protection against missile attack which apply to individual NATO members could leave particular countries or groups of countries exposed and the Alliance vulnerable to blackmail; (ix) Welcoming work done in NATO on Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) to protect deployed troops and units while acknowledging the ongoing challenge to develop a common approach to the threat of missile attack on member states themselves; (x) Noting that neither has the EU discussed missile defence to date, nor does the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) as yet extend to the means of response to missile attack on EU member states; (xi) Taking note of the opinion of the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and WEU Secretary General, Javier Solana, to the effect that while the EU is not a defence alliance, it has an external and security policy and should debate missile defence, although the decision on such an issue is one for defence alliances; that while EU member states are sovereign in this area such policy should be compatible with the EU’s general security interests; furthermore, that any form of missile defence system could affect the EU’s relations with Russia; (xii) Noting that while the concern over the proliferation of WMD and missile technology is in the main shared by Russia which has, in the past, been open to cooperation with NATO and the US on missile defence, Russia has recently expressed its hostility towards the deployment of elements of such a system in certain NATO member states close to its borders; (xiii) Aware of concerns about the risk of a new arms race through the deployment of missile defence systems, but recalling that proliferation is the essential source of the threat which existing non-proliferation regimes have not sufficiently hampered in development and that it is necessary to strengthen them; (xiv) Bearing in mind the uncertainties about the concrete design, effectiveness and operational reliability of the United States Ballistic Missile Defense System;
French: RECOMMANDATION N° 805 sur la défense antimissile – une position commune aux Européens ?