The EU offices of Oxfam International, Amnesty and IANSA would like to thank everyone who participated in the joint action on the European Parliament Written Declaration on the arms trade. It has certainly been one of the biggest EU-wide activities on arms control so far, with the participation of NGOs, NGO coalitions and individuals in virtually all of the then 15 EU member states.
The process has now come to an end with 156 signatories. Although the Declaration was not adopted (315 signatories needed), its message reached the vast majority of parliamentarians. Further, key people in the relevant parliamentary committees have declared their full support for our aims. We hope that they will now push for the inclusion of our demands in future European Parliament Resolutions and have already successfully done so in a resolution on transatlantic relations on 22 April 2004.
This Resolution “urges the EU and the United States to seek to ensure the revival of negotiated arms control and disarmament at multilateral level within the UN system and at bilateral level, in order to prevent a new arms race and reduce the existing arms arsenals, and to support regional and global action to prevent the proliferation not only of weapons of mass destruction but also of small arms, light weapons and land mines by providing adequate resources; calls on the EU and the USA efficiently to implement their respective Codes of Conduct on Arms Exports and to promote the elaboration of a UN Arms Trade Treaty preventing the delivery of small arms and light weapons to regions of conflict".
The train has therefore certainly started to move ..
For more information, please contact europe@iansa.org
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