Níl an doiciméad seo ar fáil i do theanga féin. Tá sé á thairiscint duit i dteanga eile i measc na dteangacha atá ar fáil sa roghchlár teanga.

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION

18.4.2007

to wind up the debate on statements by the Council and Commission
pursuant to Rule 103(2) of the Rules of Procedure
by André Brie and Tobias Pfluger
on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group
on transatlantic relations

Céimeanna an doiciméid sa chruinniú iomlánach

An doiciméad roghnaithe :

B6-0152/2007

Téacsanna arna gcur síos :

B6-0152/2007

Díospóireachtaí :

PV 25/04/2007 - 2
CRE 25/04/2007 - 2

Vótaí :

PV 25/04/2007 - 11.13
CRE 25/04/2007 - 11.13

Téacsanna arna nglacadh :

B6‑0152/2007

European Parliament resolution on transatlantic relations

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the report on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners (2006/2200(INI)),

– having regard to the recommendation of the European Parliament to the Council on the negotiations for an agreement with the United States of America on the use of passenger name records (PNR) data to prevent and combat terrorism and transnational crime, including organised crime (2006/2193(INI)),

– having regard to the resolutions of the European Parliament on Guantánamo,

– having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.whereas relations between the civil societies of Europe and the United States are deeply rooted and are based on common values, such as respect for and promotion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, sustainable economies and sustainable development; whereas certain policies of the Bush Administration constitute a serious obstacle for the development of transatlantic relations;
B.
whereas it is obvious that the military-dominated foreign policy of the Bush Administration has failed, in particular in the following fields:
- ◙the US-led invasion of Iraq and its subsequent consequences have led to widespread violence, sectarian conflicts and chaos threatening the unity of Iraq and the stability of the whole region and resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and millions of displaced persons, especially women and children, within and outside Iraq;
- ◙the operations of the NATO military forces in Afghanistan have resulted in a new destabilisation of the country;
- ◙the so-called fight against terrorism and the failure to address the mounting economic and social problems in the world are producing new violence;
C.whereas within the civil society and the Congress of the United States there is growing criticism of and resistance to the policies of the Bush Administration and a strong call for change; whereas this development is supported by civil society in Europe, which rejected the war against Iraq from the very beginning and which is committed to multilateralism and international law as the best way to identify and meet threats and to find solutions to global problems;
D.
whereas the Bush Administration is accountable for serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, e.g.:
- ◙serious abuses by US military personnel continue in US-administered detention facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo;
- ◙on 6 September 2006, US President George W. Bush confirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was operating a secret detention programme outside the United States, including in Europe;
E.whereas the Bush administration's strategy to combat terrorism has made use of pervasive instruments to monitor sensitive data relating to European citizens, such as the Passenger Names Record (PNR) agreement, and to monitor bank details through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network; whereas these actions risk undermining the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens;
F.whereas the United States bears the major responsibility for the erosion of the arms control and disarmament system;
G.whereas the Bush Administration did not ratify the statute of the International Criminal Court, but has tried by means of bilateral impunity agreements to prevent its nationals from being accountable to the ICC for unlawful actions;
H.whereas the death penalty exists in 38 states of the United States and at federal level;
I.whereas the United States did not sign the Kyoto Protocol;
J.whereas the European Union was unable to find a common approach vis-à-vis these policies of the Bush administration; whereas the foreign policy of its Member States is marked by major differences; whereas this situation greatly weakens Europe's position as a partner of the United States;
1.Reaffirms the importance of the relations between the United States and the European Union and, in particular between their peoples; regrets that largely because of the foreign policy of the Bush Administration, but also in economic cooperation, there are serious problems in the development of the transatlantic partnership;
2.Underlines that the defence of peace and international law, human rights and fundamental freedoms should be at the core of transatlantic relations; urges the Council and Commission to send a clear signal to their partners in the United States that the violations of these established rules and principles are fundamental obstacles for the development of the relations;
3.
Calls on the Council and Commission to intensify the political dialogue with the Bush administration on conceptual questions of international policy:
- ◙to state clearly that multilateralism, and in particular international cooperation within the UN, remains the best way to identify and meet threats and find solutions for global problems;
- ◙to reaffirm the EU's opposition to any pre-emptive unilateral military action and military superpower concepts;
- ◙to reaffirm that the fight against terrorism cannot be waged in breach of international law and at the expense of established, basic and shared values such as respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, the rule of law and the relevant Geneva Conventions;
- 4.Takes the view that, to this end, an intensification of the EU-US parliamentary political dialogue could be useful; demands that the Commission pay more attention to civil society relationships and not focus only on business dialogue;

International questions

5.
Calls on the Council and Commission to defend, during the forthcoming EU-US summit, a policy on Iraq based on international law and to commit themselves:
- •to working for the establishment of the real and comprehensive sovereignty of Iraq and the withdrawal of the occupying troops;
- •to contributing to the establishment of the real and comprehensive sovereignty of Iraq over its oil and other natural resources;
- •to assisting the political, economic and social reconstruction of Iraq;
6.Calls on the Council and Commission to express the EU's serious preoccupation over the pressure on Iran, including the threat of use of force being exercised by the US, to reaffirm their opposition to any military action as any such action would lead to a deeper crisis in the region, and to insist on a peaceful political settlement to the dispute over Iran's nuclear programmes;
7.Calls on the Council and Commission to insist on a reorientation of policy on Afghanistan from military means towards economic and social reconstruction;
8.Takes the view that the resolution of the Middle East conflict on the basis of UN resolutions should constitute a major objective of transatlantic relations; calls on the transatlantic partners to use the momentum generated by the Arab summit in Riyadh which confirmed the Arab peace initiative proposed in 2002 in Beirut and by the establishment of the Palestinian national unity government to make renewed efforts to come to a solution for an equitable and definitive end to the conflict; calls on the EU to play a more active and independent role within the Quartet;
9.Calls on the transatlantic partners to resume direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, to recognize the national unity government and to contribute to the organization of an international peace conference in order to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region on the basis of UN resolutions, taking due account of the Arab peace initiative;
10.Calls on the Council and Commission to express, vis-à-vis their US partners, the EU's serious preoccupation over the plans to establish an anti-missile system in EU Member States and to call upon the US to withdraw these plans which have alarmed European public opinion; takes the view that new anti-missile systems risk leading to a new arms race making Europe a target for military attack and creating new political divisions between EU Member States, as well as between Russia and the EU;
11.
Urges the EU and the US to seek to ensure the revival of negotiated arms control at multilateral level within the UN system and at bilateral level; reiterates its call to the US:
- •to stop the development of new generations of battlefield nuclear weapons;
- •to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty;
- •to ratify the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and their Destruction;
- •to abandon its resistance to the Compliance Protocol to the UN Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention;
- •to contribute to the strengthening of the NPT regime by strictly implementing all NPT obligations, in particular Article 2;
- •to give new impetus to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the strengthening of its organisation;
12.Calls on the Bush administration to show its willingness to cooperate with the international community by ratifying the Kyoto protocol and the statute of the International Criminal Court;

Human rights and fundamental freedoms

13.Stresses the need for transatlantic political dialogue on matters concerning the fight against terrorism in the sense of combating it by legal means; urges the Council and Commission to stress that the appropriate legal framework for governing the international fight against terrorism is criminal law and international human rights law;
14.Reiterates its call on the Council and Commission to issue a clear and forceful declaration in order to dissipate any doubt as to the Member State governments' cooperation with and connivance in the extraordinary rendition and secret prisons programme in the past, present and future and to call on the US Administration to put an end to the practice of extraordinary arrests and renditions, in line with the position of Parliament;
15.Calls on the Council and Commission to make it clear that the judicial safeguards contained in EU norms and traditions have to be fully respected in all agreements with the United States, that European data protection standards have to be guaranteed, and that no retention or use of data can be allowed which would undermine any rights and guarantees;
16.Calls on the Council and Commission to address, during their consultations with the Bush Administration, the situation in Guantánamo and in the US-administered detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to insist on their closure;
17.Demands once again that the United States abolish the death penalty at federal and state levels;

Economic questions

18.Takes the view that the EU needs to diversify its economic relations, preserve its policies in matters such as public health and the environment, and reinforce its economic relations with other regions of the world; considers that neither a New Transatlantic Economic Partnership nor a free trade area with the United States should be priorities for the EU in its relations with the US, as EU-US trade already accounts for 50% of all international trade;
19.Calls on the EU and the US to combine efforts to build a more equitable international trade system, giving priority to development, poverty reduction, the environment and cultural diversity, rather than imposing deregulation and prioritising the profits of corporate companies;
20.Asks the Council and Commission to discuss with the transatlantic partners how to make progress in the matter of developing countries' access to medicines, and to oppose vigorously the initiative of the US to include in all bilateral agreements negotiated with developing countries clauses by which those countries renounce the use of the provision of the Doha Agreement in TRIPS that allows them to produce and import generic drugs that are needed to tackle major public health problems (AIDS, tuberculosis, etc);
21.Asks the Council and Commission to put an end to the Blair House agreement limiting the production of oil and protein yielding plants, which impedes the EU from producing them and forces it to import agricultural energy resources such as soya beans or crops which are often GMO products;
22.Considers that the right to secure food and a safe environment are at the origin of several commercial conflicts between the EU and the US, such as those over hormone-treated meat and GMO products, and asks the Council and Commission to act in line with and in defence of the applicable EC legislation;
23.Considers that the EU and the US, being major consumers of energy and representing 38% of world energy consumption, have to take the lead and make joint efforts to develop means of alternative energy production; underlines the need to develop environmentally sustainable alternatives, and to ensure the protection of forests worldwide;