Green MEPs call for review of EU arms sale policy - 17th Nov 2004
New internationational treaty needed to stem flow of weapons
Green MEP Caroline Lucas has welcomed a vote by the European Parliament in Strasbourg to review of the EU's Code of Conduct on Arms Exports - and to retain its embargo on weapons sales to China.
"The EU's founding principles of tackling poverty, reducing conflict and upholding human rights are undermined by arms sales from EU members states to the very countries whose records are worst in these areas," said Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for South-East England.
Dr Lucas's comments came as Euro-MPs voted on the fifth annual report on the implementation of the Code of Conduct, which was agreed by all EU member states in 1998.
EU Foreign Ministers adopted the Code of Conduct to ensure arms sales from EU countries did not fan the flames of conflict - or divert developing nations' resources from the more crucial efforts to tackle poverty and human rights abuses.
Though it is widely regarded as one of the toughest regimes governing arms sales imposed on major exporting nations worldwide, the Code of Conduct is not legally binding, and both NGOs and Euro-MPs have criticised member states' failure to implement it at a national level.
"There is a fundamental contradiction between the EU's laudable foreign policy objectives and its failure to control the activities of its member states which directly undermine them," said Dr Lucas, who is also a member of CND's National Council.
"Today's vote endorses Parliament's opinion that the EU must harmonise it arms sales policies by endorsing the Code of Conduct as a legally binding instrument, expanding its scope to cover exports of materials which can be used for torture or capital punishment and setting up an EU-wide register of arms brokers and dealers.
"MEPs have also agreed to call for a new international treaty controlling weapons sales - and to uphold the EU arms embargo to China, the world's principal importer of conventional weapons, with its dismal human rights record and simmering conflicts in Taiwan and Tibet."
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Green Principal Speaker joins protest over EU's corporate links
23rd Nov 2004
Protesters portray Mandelson as a 'corporate puppet'
Green Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has joined trade campaigners from across the EU to welcome new Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to his first day at the office - with an oversized puppet of the ex-MP and a simple message: back off from corporate lobbyists.
The demonstration, organised by the World Development Movement, Friends of the Earth and Corporate Europe Observatory, portrayed Mr Mandelson as a 'corporate puppet' with his strings being pulled by corporate lobbyists and multinational companies.
The commissioner has already attracted the ire of fair trade campaigners for his decision to address a business audience on removing barriers to trade in Brussels yesterday.
Dr Lucas, a member of the European Parliament?s Trade Committee and a parliamentary delegate to the WTO, said: "European Corporate lobbyists have enjoyed excessive influence at the European Commission ? and have been able to contribute to the EU?s trade policy.
"It's exactly this sort of democratic deficit which breeds suspicion of the EU and opposition to the proposed EU constitution. The new commission has an opportunity to curb this undue influence and restore some much-needed public credibility to its work."
Dr Lucas, who represents South-East England, added: "Peter Mandelson claims he wants both freer and fairer trade, and that he seeks to challenge globalisation in a benign way.
"This is inherently inconsistent, but if he is serious about challenging globalisation I look forward to working with him on the complete overhaul of the WTO's rules that this must logically require."