101 MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TABLE A DRAFT RESOLUTION ON "THE NECESSITY TO CREATE A EUROPEAN MILITARY AND CIVIL CORPS FOR PEACE KEEPING AND PEACE MAKING PURPOSES".

STATEMENT BY OLIVIER DUPUIS

Brussels, 17 April 1997. Two months before the Inter Governmental Conference that will have to face the question of the revision of the Treaties, 101 deputies propose to confront the question of the reform of the common foreign and security policy in a concrete manner, by giving the Union a European military and civil corps, charged with peace keeping and peace making operations.

The signatories make part of the groups EPP, ESP, UPE, ARE, ELDR, the Green Group, and the Non-attached, from 13 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom).

Statement by Olivier Dupuis, MEP, Reformers and General Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party:

"Europe has not been able to respond adequately to the tragedies that have multiplied over the last years, whether in former Yugoslavia, Ruanda, Somalia, Zaire or, lastly, in Albania. When it did respond, it was each time very late and only through the intermediation of certain Member States. The consequences of Europe's absence are evident. Ranging from the humanitarian consequences reflected in thousands of deaths to the image of the Union that has certainly not improved. It is more than ever urgent to oppose the creation of a true common foreign policy to the chimera of national foreign policies. Of course this depends first and foremost on the development of new regulations and the reform of the Treaties, but also on the creation of new instruments. A european military and civil corps for peacekeeping and peacemaking operations is such an instrument. It is without any doubt one of the most important ones."

Radical Party

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Enclosed the text of the draft resolution and the list of signatories.