EP calls on Cologne Summit to discuss ratification of the Tribunal's statute

11/05/1999 (Agence Europe)

With the adoption last Thursday of a resolution presented by most of the political groups, the EP called once more upon EU Member States to ratify the statute of the International Criminal Tribunal, which will have the responsibility of handling crimes against humanity. The diplomatic conference in Rome had adopted this statute, on 18 July 1998. It must be ratified by at least 60 countries in order to take effect but so far has only been ratified by Senegal, Trinidad y Tobago and Saint-Martin. The Parliament, which notes that substantial progress in the ratification process has been accomplished so far in Italy, France, Belgium and Finland, calls on the EU to set itself the political aim of ratification by at least 60 countries by end 2000, and on the European Council of Cologne to discuss this aim, so that the Union may play an active and decisive role in the preparatory committees to meet in July and September. The Parliament also urges the EU Member States not to resort to Article 124 of the statute which

allows them to exclude war crimes from the competence of the Tribunal during an interim period of seven years, and calls on the EU to: - make ratification of the statute an essential element of negotiation on future agreements with third countries; - do everything possible so that countries which have associationor cooperation agreements with the EU ratify this statute.