Spain is training Saudi soldiers to participate in the Yemen war
13.7.2021
Question for written answer E-003546/2021
to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Rule 138
Jordi Solé (Verts/ALE), Diana Riba i Giner (Verts/ALE), Alviina Alametsä (Verts/ALE), Ernest Urtasun (Verts/ALE), Mounir Satouri (Verts/ALE), Salima Yenbou (Verts/ALE), Katrin Langensiepen (Verts/ALE), Heidi Hautala (Verts/ALE)
According to the newspaper elDiario.es[1], two Spanish private companies (Everis and NTGS) trained Saudi Arabian soldiers in a Spanish Army training camp in Zaragoza in 2018 and 2019. Once trained in the use of the weapons that these companies sold to the Ministry of Interior of Saudi Arabia, the soldiers, members of the Saudi Border Guard, were sent to the Yemen border to participate in a war that has already led to more than 233 000 deaths and ‘rampant levels of serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, many of which may amount to war crimes’, according to the UN[2].
Parliament has repeatedly stated that arms exports violate at least criterion 2, 4 and 8 of the legally binding Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP defining common rules governing control of exports of military technology and equipment. Furthermore, it has repeatedly urged the Member States to impose an embargo against Saudi Arabia and the Vice‑President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) to launch a process in that respect at EU level. Several Member States have already imposed national embargos. Despite this, Spain has been selling arms and military equipment and offering military training to Saudi Arabia.
What will the VP/HR do regarding Spain’s non‑compliance with Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP?