Ministers announce anti-WMD proliferation plan

By David Cronin

Date: 23/10/03

EU AGREEMENTS with foreign countries would systematically include clauses aimed at halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), under a plan being discussed at the Council of Ministers.

A Council working group on external relations recommended that accords reached with "third countries" should include provisions committing them to strict compliance, on pain of sanctions, with international treaties or UN Security Council resolutions on biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

EU foreign ministers are due to give their verdict on the blueprint when they meet in Brussels next month. However, Council insiders say that there are legal hurdles to be overcome before the recommendations can be put into effect - principally, that there appears to be no legal base for inserting a "non-proliferation clause" into trade or economic accords. These are negotiated as part of the EU's so-called first pillar, which covers the policies of the European Community's founding treaties and does not touch on WMD.

"There is a wide consensus that the EU has to be very active in the non-proliferation field," explained one EU official. "But we have to find a legal construction in order to have a non-proliferation clause."

European efforts to assume a greater role in the non-proliferation debate received a boost on Tuesday (21 October), when Iran agreed to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency by allowing it to make on-the-spot inspections of the country's nuclear sites. The accord was brokered by three EU foreign ministers - Joschka Fischer (Germany), Dominique de Villepin (France) and Jack Straw (Britain).

The Union's work in thwarting the development of WMD is on the agenda for the 12-13 December Brussels summit. EU leaders will assess what progress has been made in implementing an action plan produced within the Council of Ministers in June on non-proliferation.

Among the difficulties identified by officials is that both current and incoming member states do not have adequate safeguards in place to cover the export of material which may be used in manufacturing WMD.