Press Release 10-13e12.03.10 14:26 Churches urge the EU to be more ambitious in nuclear disarmament
With two nuclear weapon states and four ‘semi-nuclear weapon states’, the EU is part of the nuclear weapons problem and should assume greater responsibility for nuclear disarmament. This is the core message of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches (CSC-CEC) in its statement to the Spanish EU Presidency and the new High Representative as the EU prepares for the forthcoming Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York on 3-28 May 2010. President Obama has provided the world with new hope to end reliance on nuclear deterrence by aiming at a world without nuclear weapons. However, since optimism about the May Review Conference is shrinking due to Obama’s troubles in pursuing his policy at home, the EU Member States should assume an active role to keep the momentum and inject new vigour into it. The EU should in its Common Position to the NPT Review Conference fully endorse the new US policy toward ‘global zero’. The 10 March resolution by the European Parliament on non-proliferation provides an example to follow. Whereas the EU plays a constructive role as to non-proliferation and the access to peaceful use of energy, two of the three NPT pillars, when it comes to the pillar of nuclear disarmament the tendency is to be less ambitious, leaving the responsibility to others. In its own policy the EU should give priority to addressing tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) in Europe. “The withdrawal of all US nuclear weapons from Europe would help with building confidence in non-proliferation,” the CSC-CEC statement says. It also appeals to nuclear weapons states for refraining from modernizing their nuclear weapon systems and for reducing the role of nuclear deterrence in security strategies through a policy of ‘no first use’. The churches believe that even if abolishing nuclear weapons will be a long and complicated process that will require profound changes in the world and in people’s minds, the vision of a better world can help transform today’s reality. It is contradictory to our deepest beliefs and convictions that security should rely on a readiness to destroy the world which God has entrusted to us, they maintain. Read the full statement at: Nuclear_Disarmament The Member States are expected to adopt the EU Common Position at the Foreign Affairs Council of 22 March. ****** For more information: The Conference of European Churches (CEC) is a fellowship of some 120 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Old Catholic Churches from all countries of Europe, plus 40 associated organisations. CEC was founded in 1959. It has offices in Geneva, Brussels and Strasbourg. The Church and Society Commission of CEC links member churches and associated organisations of CEC with the European Union’s institutions, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, NATO and the UN (on European matters). Its task is to help the churches study church and society questions from a theological and social-ethical perspective, especially those with a European dimension, and to represent common positions of the member churches in their relations with political institutions working in Europe.
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