13 October 2006 - The EU has taken its first steps towards expelling US nuclear weapons from the union after a cross-party group of MEPs signed a Written Declaration calling for the US to withdraw all nuclear weapons from EU military bases by the end of the year.

The resolution, co-sponsored by Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas, attracted 67 signatures from MEPs from across the EU’s member countries and political groups.

A Written Declaration is the European Parliament’s equivalent of an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons. Though the level of support Dr Lucas’s declaration received is less than the threshold to become official parliamentary policy, it marks the first time Green calls for the removal of US nuclear weapons have received cross-party support.

Dr Lucas, who represents South-East England and is also co-founder and co-president of the European Parliament’s cross-party Peace Initiatives group and a member of CND’s decision-making council, said: “The US continues to site almost 500 nuclear weapons around the EU – amid widespread and growing concern about safety and security.

“The presence of US nuclear bombs creates a network of terrorist targets across the EU. The weapons themselves are held in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires the US to disable its nuclear arsenal – at a time when it is doing precisely the opposite.

“The EU must play no part in either the breach of international law or placing its citizens at unnecessary risk of ill-health, terrorist attack or preventable conflict – and I am delighted so many MEPs have agreed to back this call for the swift expulsion of the US nuclear arsenal which is at the root of both problems.

“It’s time for us to declare Independence from America ’s military bases and the illegal nuclear weapons of mass destruction they contain.”

ENDS

Written Declaration