Resolution accepted at the EGP Council meeting, Brussels, Belgium, March 29, 2009
European security policy must be a human rights policy in which populations - minorities in particular - must be protected against genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity. Fundamental rights are not negotiable.
1.The narrow, military, state oriented concept of European Security Strategy, as adopted by the EU since 2003, must be widened into a broad based concept and a policy of Human Security, aiming at actively addressing and resolving the root causes of tensions, violent conflict and war, the violation of human rights (including just social policy and fair trade); the unfair distribution of resources and energy in the globalised world, as well as pollution and climate change. The EU should stop building a fortress against refugees desperately seeking asylum to be protected against violent conflict, repression and poverty. Protection of the civilians must be among the main priorities in European Human Security policies. European countries must unite to achieve success on the basis of multilateralism, with priority to prevention, disarmament and non-military conflict resolution.
2.European security policy must be a human rights policy in which populations - minorities in particular - must be protected against genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity. Fundamental rights are not negotiable and external intervention can only be supported if undertaken for humanitarian reasons, have a clear basis in international law; and called for by the United Nations as a last resort under clearly defined conditions and with clearly defined objectives. Such intervention must be non-partisan and deployment of armed forces to safeguard the access to resources in the interest of the intervening state(s)or against drug cultivation must be rejected. The fight against international terrorism and organized crime must be taken seriously but should not lead to a repression of civil liberties and political rights. In peacetime, military forces should not be used for police tasks.
3.Non-military foreign policy instruments must be the mainstay of Europe as a civilian power which through its own hard history has learned to recognize the importance of common understanding, dialogue and the need to address confrontation and crisis with peaceful and respectful means. EU member states must stop undermining the European foreign and security policy by unilateral and bilateral approaches in which military means are called for even before the diplomatic and civilian means have been exhausted, if at all attempted. Still too often Europe is simply watching tensions developing into full blown conflicts. More effort has to be done to prevent conflicts from arising, to facilitate lasting comprehensive political settlements for existing conflicts and to rehabilitate in post-conflict areas.
4.Europe’s civilian capabilities must be strengthened and provided with adequate resources in order to make Europe a civil power; a European Civil Peace Force for civil missions other than police- missions, and a Partnership with NGOs for non-state peace building and conflict prevention activities must be established. The role of EU's militarily non-aligned countries to contribute to conflict-resolution must be fully recognized.
5.Civilian Crisis Management concept developed in the EU has five priority areas: police, rule of law, civilian administration, civil protection and monitoring. Its main difference with military crisis management is that all the operations are carried out by civilians, not military personnel. Civilian Crisis Management plays an important role in conflict prevention and should thereby be a principal tool in crisis management.
6.The European Union has from the outset been a peace project in which the EU provides a decisive boost for democracy and human rights. Its further enlargement to Turkey and to the Western Balkan countries must be seen as a way to pursue this historical effort.7.Disarmament of weapons of mass destruction is a key to peace. Double standards of the policy against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their carriers, must disappear. Preemptive strikes are intolerable and must make place for sound diplomatic and strategic policies of which security guarantees (and the right not to be attacked) form a part . In that perspective, Europe must become a nuclear weapon free zone. British, French and Russian nuclear arsenals must no longer be modernized but abolished and US nuclear weapons on European territory must be withdrawn. Europe must take the lead in the global nuclear disarmament process, in particular for the establishment of the global convention against nuclear arms.
8.EU must play an active role in arms limitation processes like Convention on Cluster Munitions (Oslo Treaty) and global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) processes. Financing the production, proliferation and use of mines, cluster bombs and uranium weapons must be prohibited by strengthening the current and upcoming regional and global treaties. The irresponsible export of conventional arms must be stopped; the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports must be made legally binding and a true global Arms Trade Treaty be established in order to forbid the spread of small arms. Arms brokering must strongly be regulated and restricted.
9.International organizations such as the OSCE and UN must be reinforced, and loopholes in international treaties must be closed.
10. ‘Climate change and exhaustion of natural resources like energy, water, land and biodiversity are posing new challenges to our security policies. Long-lasting peace is only possible when access to and sustainable use of all our natural resources is equally distributed globally and if we effectively fight climate change on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities. Therefore, sustainable development should become mainstream of UN and EU foreign and security policies and institutions. Furthermore, development of renewable resources is a vital opportunity for conflict prevention and resolution.’
11. The deployment of a so called missile defence shield, either as a result of bilateral negotiations or by the NATO, must be rejected as such deployment will not provide any protection but only lead to more emphasis on military tools to counter real or perceived threats, a policy of asymmetric security inside Europe, and provoke arms races – particularly in space. The militarization and weaponisation of space must be prevented.’
12. The EU is cooperating with NATO but Europe can not continue to be dependent on NATO for its security. NATO is a military alliance of states which has not renounced its reliance on the first strike nuclear weapon deterrence. The EU needs to develop its own vision of international security, supported by autonomous diplomatic, intelligence and planning capabilities. For us Greens, the EU approach to security issues can in no way replicate the doctrine of the previous U.S. Administration, based on high tech warfare capabilities supported by absurd levels of military expenditure.
13. A European white paper must be produced clearly defining operational scenarios (including financing, equipment, gender, discipline and training) and laying down clear limits for military operations (including their timing and exit-scenarios). National capabilities must become fully interoperable in European multinational missions. Armed forces and military spending should be reduced significantly. To stop the current waste of overlapping arms producing facilities, the juxtaposition of the 27 national arms markets must be consigned to the past.
14. Transparency and parliamentary control on EU civil and military operations must be leading arguments in the further evolution of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). This must be guaranteed at the European level through the European Parliament in good co-operation with the national parliaments. As long as this is not the case, the rights of national parliaments must be ensured and strengthened at all events. No military mission should be undertaken before authorized in advance by the European Parliament and the national parliaments involved in that mission.
Download the complete collection of resolutions from the 2009 Spring Council in PDF format here...
