Version:| English | Deutsch
US Nuclear Weapons in Europe – when will they go?
On 12 June 2006, Caroline Lucas, MEP, Co-President of the Intergroup for Peace Initiatives in the European Parliament and Angelika Beer, MEP, Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs for the Green Group in the European Parliament tabled a written declaration asking for the US Nuclear Weapons to be withdrawn from Europe.
There are 480 US nuclear weapons on US bases in EU Member States.
Why should these weapons still be here? During the Cold War, their presence was justified with the argument of deterrence. We may have disagreed or agreed with that argument then, but the argument no longer holds.
The US and the Member States of the EU have signed up to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. This Treaty represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States. Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970. A total of 187 parties have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States. More countries have ratified the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, a testament to the Treaty's significance.
Maintaining nuclear arsenals is therefore not in line with the letter or the spirit of this Treaty. Maintaining them on the territories of third countries which do not have nuclear arsenals of their own (and in opposition to the views of the public in those countries) seems particularly counter to this spirit.
The written declaration needs half the Members of the European Parliament to sign it in order for it to be the adopted position of the Parliament. If adopted, it will form a useful instrument in future lobbying on this issue, with the US, with the Member States on whose territories these weapons are based, with NATO and at the UN.
Please contact your MEP urgently and ask them to sign this written declaration. The deadline for signatures is 12 October 2006. There is no time to lose.
Return to top of page
Return to the Intergroup Main Page |
