Two Green women Members of the European Parliament, Caroline Lucas (UK) and Angelika Beer (Germany) have submitted an excellent Written Declaration on the Withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from European territory before the end of 2006.

The Written Declaration 0047/2006 has been translated into all of the languages of the EU, can be downloaded here:

Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Dutch, Polish, Portugal, Slovakian, Slovenian, Swedish (.doc files, 30k)

You can also download a standard letter, that Greenpeace is sending to all MEPs in the NATO nuclear sharing countries, and other offices where they have a presence.
However, the call needs to be much much broader than from just Greenpeace, and we really hope you can help to contact your MEP!

Download the standard letter here.

The timing of this is important, as Written Declarations are "live" for only 3 months and require half of the MEPs to sign on before they become an official resolution. The declaration will expire at the end of the
European Parliament's Plenary Session on 11 and 12 October.

Find contact details for your MEP:
www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public.do?language=en

List of MEPS who already signed

---

Model Letter to send to your MEP

---

LETTERHEAD
ADDRESS

DATE

Dear ___________,

Re: Written Declaration on withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from European territory

Greenpeace urges you to sign the European Parliament Written Declaration 0047/2006 on the Withdrawal of US Nuclear Weapons from European Territor before the end of 2006, which open for signature on 12 June 2006 and lapses on 12 September 2006.

As you know, sixteen years after the end of the cold war, 480 US nuclear weapons remain in Europe, spread across Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the UK under NATO nuclear sharing arrangements. Each of these nuclear bombs has a destructive capacity of up to ten times that of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, with a combined power capable of wiping Europe off the map.

By signing Written Declaration 0047/2006 you will be representing the views of a large majority of your constituents. According to public opinion polling commissioned by Greenpeace, two thirds of citizens in NATO US nuclear weapons host countries want to live in a nuclear weapons-free Europe.[1]

A new Greenpeace report, “Securing our Future, Ensuring our Survival, Why US NATO Nuclear Weapons in Europe Must Go,� reveals the clear and present dangers posed by US nuclear weapons in Europe.[2] Each US nuclear weapon in Europe is a potential target of terror, poses a serious risk of an accident and turns the host country into a nuclear target. Each nuclear weapon is an impediment to further reductions in Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons and ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear intentions.

The Greenpeace report explains that use of these nuclear bombs can be decided by the President of the United States without the permission of the host country. An article in the New Yorker by Seymour M. Hersh in April revealed US scenarios that included the use of B61 bombs -- the type of US bomb stored in Europe -- in a potential strike on Iran. In this way European NATO nuclear sharing countries risk nuclear weapons being launched from their territories in a US conflict. This complicity in the foreign policy of another country means that the populations of the host countries could be unwittingly implicated in a nuclear conflict instigated by a government they did not elect.

Given the dangers posed by these weapons, and the will of the majority of citizens, we urge you to take action within your political group and work to ensure that signatures are gathered to endorse the Written Declaration on the withdrawal of NATO/US nuclear weapons from Europe.

Sincerely

---