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Non-proliferation and the future of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)

2008/2324(INI)

The European Parliament adopted by 271 votes to 38, with 29 abstentions, a resolution in which it addresses a number of recommendations to the Council on non-proliferation and the future of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

The Parliament recalls that the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), and their means of delivery, both to state and non-state actors, represents one of the most serious threats to international stability and security. It also recalls the commitment of the EU to make use of all instruments at its disposal to prevent, deter, halt and if possible eliminate proliferation programmes causing concern at global level (as clearly expressed by the EU Strategy against Proliferation of WMD adopted by the European Council on 12 December 2003).

In this context, the plenary welcomes the letter dated 5 December 2008 from the French EU Presidency to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon setting out the EU's disarmament proposals which were adopted by the European Council in December 2008.

Moreover, the Parliament recalls the initiatives of the French and British governments to reduce their nuclear arsenals. It also recalls that, in Prague on 5 April 2009, Barack Obama, the newly elected President, underlined his commitment to take nuclear disarmament forward (as part of his vision of a world without nuclear weapons), and that he decided to engage in constructive cooperation with Russia to renew the START agreement in order to take ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert and to dramatically reduce the stockpiles of US nuclear weapons and material.

In particular, the plenary welcomes the US decision to fully participate in the E3 + 3 process with Iran and the intention of President Obama to finalise the ratification by the United States of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and to initiate negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty. Moreover, the plenary welcomes the speech made in Prague by US President Obama, in which he stated that the USA has a moral responsibility to lead a campaign to rid the world of all nuclear weapons, whilst calling on the new US administration to include the European Union fully in this campaign.

In this general context, the Parliament addresses the following recommendations to the Council:

  • review and update Council Common Position 2005/329/PESC relating to the 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (to be endorsed at the December 2009 European Council meeting), in preparation for a successful outcome at the 2010 NPT Review Conference and commit to the aim of eventual total nuclear disarmament, as contained in the proposal for a Nuclear Weapons Convention;
  • intensify efforts to secure the universalisation and effective implementation of non-proliferation rules and instruments, in particular by improving means of verification;
  • actively support concrete proposals to bring the production, use and reprocessing of all nuclear fuel under the control of the IAEA, including the creation of an international fuel bank;
  • support other initiatives for the multilateralisation of the nuclear fuel cycle aimed at the peaceful use of nuclear energy (in that regard that Parliament welcomes the readiness of the Council and the Commission to contribute up to EUR 25 million to the creation of a nuclear fuel bank under the control of the IAEA);
  • support further efforts to strengthen the mandate of the IAEA, including the generalisation of the Additional Protocols to the IAEA Safeguard Agreements, and other steps designed to develop confidence-building measures;
  • make substantial progress on the G8 Partnership initiative, the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Global Threat Reduction Initiative;
  • push for the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT);
  • deepen its dialogue with the new US administration and all nuclear-weapons powers, with a view to pursuing a common agenda aimed at progressive reduction of the nuclear warheads stockpile; in particular, support those steps being taken by the USA and Russia to substantially reduce their nuclear weapons;
  • develop strategies at the 2010 NPT Review Conference aimed at achieving agreement on a treaty to halt the production of fissile material for weapons purposes in a way that is not discriminatory (which means that the treaty thus negotiated should require not only non-nuclear-weapons States or States currently outside the NPT but also the five UN Security Council members, all of which possess nuclear weapons, to forswear the production of fissile material for weapons and to dismantle all their established fissile material production facilities for such weapons);
  • fully support the reinforcement and improvement of means of verification of compliance with all available non-proliferation instruments;
  • request an evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of clauses on non-proliferation of WMD in the agreements concluded between the EU and third States;
  • keep Parliament regularly informed about all preparatory meetings in the run-up to the 2010 NPT Review Conference and duly take into account its views on non-proliferation and disarmament matters with regard to that Conference.