A3-0139/94

Resolution on energy priorities in the revised Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Linkohr on energy priorities in the revised Non-Proliferation Treaty (B3-0334/93),

-having regard to its resolutions:

-of 9 February 1993 on disarmament, energy and development,

-of 11 March 1992 on the risk of nuclear proliferation due to the existence of 'nuclear mercenaries',

-of 17 September 1992 on the Community's role in the supervision of arms exports and the armaments industry,

-of 19 November 1992 on the international transport of plutonium,

-having regard to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),

-having regard to the Treaty on European Union,

-having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) and, in particular, Chapter VII thereof,

-having regard to the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),

-having regard to the Treaties of Tlatelolco and Rarotonga,

-having regard to the agreement between Argentina and Brazil signed at the seat of the IAEA on 13 December 1991,

-having regard to the European Energy Charter adopted on 16 and 17 December 1991,

-having regard to the Lisbon agreement of 23 May 1992,

-having regard to the agreement between Russia and Ukraine made public on 4 September 1993 and the agreement signed in Moscow by the United States, Russia and Ukraine on 14 January 1994,

-having regard to the Israeli-Palestinian agreement signed on 13 September 1993,

-having regard to the conclusions of the public hearing on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons organized by the Subcommittee on Security and Disarmament on 24 November 1992,

-having regard to the conclusions of the public hearing 'Aid instead of arms - A practical proposal for East-West military conversion' held on 28 and 29 April 1993 by the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security, the Committee on Budgets, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy, the Committee on External Economic Relations and the Delegation for relations with the CIS,

-having regard to the declarations of the G7 summit meetings held in Munich in 1992 and Tokyo in 1993,

-having regard to the conclusions of the public hearing held by the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation on 21 September 1993,

-having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of its Committee on Energy, Research and Technology (A3-0139/94),

A.having regard to the Community's actions in favour of cooperation with the CIS and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (particularly in the context of the TACIS and PHARE programmes), which include the fields of nuclear safety and guarantee, in the sense laid down in the EURATOM Treaty and the Statute of the IAEA, which should be extended to cover stockpiling and the subsequent use for civil purposes of the material released by the dismantling of nuclear warheads,

B.whereas, in the context of the Lisbon agreement, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have undertaken to sign the START I treaty and ratify the NPT as soon as possible, and to transfer, by the end of 1999, all the nuclear weapons currently stationed on their soil to Russia to be dismantled; whereas Ukraine has still to ratify this agreement,

C.having regard to the outcome of the four conferences held in 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1990 for the purpose of revising the NPT,

D.whereas preparations have already begun for the revision conference to be held in 1995, which will be of particular importance since, twenty-five years on from the entry into force of the NPT, it will have to decide concerning its continuation,

E.having regard to the following factors:

-the fact that the parties to the NPT at present include all the permanent members of the UN Security Council and all the EC Member States,

-the substantial changes wrought by the end of the cold war, extending to the field of proliferation and guarantees,

-the alarming information obtained from the inspections that had to be carried out after the Gulf War, respecting: a) continued nuclear weapons production as before by a state party to the NPT; and b) the trade in dual-use technology and fissile material required for such weapons production,

-the immense risks unleashed by the collapse of the Soviet export control system and the control of stocks of nuclear weapons and components in the CIS and in other successor states to the Soviet Union,

-the disturbing prospect of 'nuclear mercenaries' appearing from the ranks of the two to three thousand nuclear weapons specialists of the former Soviet Union,

-the possibility of a 'race to possess the bomb' among rival nations in the third world and the frustrations which may arise from the greater rigour exhibited in this field by the Western world since the end of the cold war,

-the decisive contribution made to the non-proliferation regime by the signing of regional-level treaties, as worthily anticipated by the Treaties of Tlatelolco and Rarotonga,

F.whereas the decision of March 1992 by the EC, the US, Japan and the Russian Federation to set up an International Science and Technology Centre in Moscow, intended primarily to reorientate the activities of the CIS's civil and military nuclear scientists and engineers towards peaceful ends, has not yet come fully into effect thanks to the failure of the relevant authorities in Russia to reach a decision,

G.whereas the future system of guarantees must place particular emphasis on the following aspects of energy policy:

-the importance, both for the guarantees system and for energy policy, of converting nuclear warheads into fuel for nuclear power stations, considering that the former Soviet Union alone possesses stocks of 27 000 to 30 000 tactical and strategic nuclear weapons,

-the importance of continuing to supply all the countries party to the NPT with sufficient fuel to meet their civil requirements on the basis of nationally and regionally determined energy policies,

-the importance of nuclear energy and nuclear safety in the context of the European Energy Charter, particularly in view of the strategic role of this form of power for energy supply and export capacities in the CIS,

Determination of an appropriate Community position

1.Calls for the determination, on as collective a basis as possible, within the new framework of political union, of an appropriate position concerning the revision of the NPT in 1995, in continuation of the path mapped out by Political Cooperation in defining common positions in this field since at least 1988, making joint declarations at the IAEA general assemblies since 1989 and collectively endorsing the 'London guidelines'; welcomes the Commission's preliminary steps in this direction as opening up the possibility of dialogue with the other Community institutions;

2.Considers that the Community's position must take account of all the objectives of the NPT, via both the strengthening of the legal and diplomatic provisions aimed at effectively preventing proliferation and decisive moves towards genuine nuclear disarmament under international supervision, in accordance with Article VI of the NPT; calls for the Union's position to include in this connection the creation of an international and global control system in respect of the entire uranium and plutonium cycle and possibly the thorium cycle, for civil purposes, including the materials deriving from the military cycle as a result of the partial dismantling of nuclear arsenals;

3.Calls for the Community's cooperation agreements with third countries, whether planned for the future or currently being negotiated, to include conditionality clauses based on the objective of achieving an international framework for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and for any future cooperation actions in the field of nuclear research and development or of training in this area to be limited to peaceful uses;

4.Advocates fuller use of the technical advisory services offered by STOA;

Improvement of the guarantee system

5.Calls for the Community's position to cover all the various proposals for improving the guarantee system, including the requisite strengthening of the inspection arrangements and the introduction of effective Security Council sanctions;

6.Calls for the Community's position to cover all the other important aspects of energy policy, in line with the long-term requirements determined on the basis of national or regional plans;

7.Calls on the Commission to inform Parliament concerning the potential for controlled utilization of the surplus nuclear military material arising from the dismantling of nuclear weapons offered by recourse to storage of materials such as radioactive residues, recycling to produce fuel for conventional nuclear power stations and the use of fast non-breeder reactors;

8.Suggests that the Joint Research Centre should participate in and contribute to the CAPRA programme for actinium reduction and plutonium burning;

9.Calls for the Community's position, in the conditions referred to in paragraphs 2 to 6 above and 11 below, to promote the continuity of the NPT and the reinforcement of the IAEA's operational capacity;

10.Calls for action to prevent unnecessary overlapping between the IAEA and the safeguarding mechanisms of the type provided for in Article 77 of the Euratom Treaty;

Regional-level measures

11.Calls, on the basis of Article VII of the NPT, for the European Union to conduct a campaign to promote regional-level measures, to include the creation of nuclear-free zones covering the entire planet with a view to eliminating the nuclear threat once and for all, and, in addition, the planning of viable means of meeting the energy needs of the regions concerned and facilitating technology transfers, while strengthening controls on dual technology use and encouraging the application of means of detecting and verifying any large-scale secret programmes;

12.Welcomes the accession of South Africa to the NPT, following which the African continent may now be considered a nuclear-free zone; also welcomes the accession of Cuba to the Treaty of Tlatelolco and calls on the European Union to embark on a vigorous diplomatic campaign to persuade Brazil to do the same, thereby making Latin America a nuclear-free zone also;

The CIS and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe

13.Calls for rapid application of the principles of the European Energy Charter and the encouragement of investment in and two-way exchanges of technology and raw materials with the countries of the former Soviet Union;

14.Calls on the Community to intensify its cooperation with the CIS and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and to aim for the highest standards of effectiveness in developing the TACIS and PHARE programmes in a context of adequate attention to their guarantee and energy development aspects;

15.Calls on the Community and the other countries which have contributed to the launching of the Moscow International Science and Technology Centre to provide the nuclear experts working there with sufficient facilities to enable them to develop the specialist study of energy applications; calls on the competent authorities of the Russian Federation to adopt the legislative instrument required for its full institution;

16.Calls on the Community, in cooperation with the other interested parties, to obtain guarantees respecting full implementation of the Lisbon agreement and especially of the process initiated by the signing of the tripartite agreement signed in Moscow on 14 January 1994;

17.Calls on the Community to introduce mechanisms or conditionality clauses into its economic and commercial cooperation agreements with third countries in the region, as a means of both supporting their full implementation in the case of existing signatory countries and promoting them as a universal principle in the case of countries which have not yet signed;

The Middle East

18.Calls for the negotiations following the Israeli-Palestinian agreement aimed at achieving a lasting peace throughout the region to include provision for the creation of a nuclear-free zone, together with close cooperation in the key areas of energy policy;

South-East Asia

19.Calls on the Community to support, by all available means, the international actions now under way aimed at ensuring that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea responds in an acceptable manner to the calls being made on it to exercise transparency and respect for its existing undertakings concerning safeguards;

20.Calls on the Commission services responsible for safeguard controls under the Euratom Treaty to exercise maximum rigour in applying the control provisions concerning exports of nuclear material from the Community to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea;

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21.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.