Dutch Parliament calls on Government to make removal of TNW a ‘hard goal’.

By Wilbert van der Zeijden, IKV Pax Christi, 29 January 2013

On the last day before the winter break, the Parliament in the Netherlands passed a motion calling for a more active pursuit of the removal of the last 20 US tactical nuclear warheads (TNW) now stationed in the Netherlands. The motion - while watered down to please Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Frans Timmermans – is still a solid step in the right direction.

The translated text of the motion (the original can be found in the link) is:

Motion 33 400, nr. 100 ”Omtzigt c.s. About the Removal of Tactical Nuclear Weapons from Europe”:

The Parliament,

Having heard the debate;

taking into account that tactical nuclear weapons no longer serve any military purpose;

noticing that the dialogue within NATO and with Russia has not or has hardly brought us any progress with regard to the reduction of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe;

noticing that the TNW present in Europe need to be modernised in 2017 and that this will be very expensive;

of the opinion that these resources should not be invested in these useless and dangerous weapons;

requests from the Government, to formulate as a hard goal the removal of TNW from Europe;

requests from Government in addition, to inform the Parliament about the message that will be rpesented by the [Dutch] delegation to the conference in Oslo early March next year;

and returns to the order of the day.

 

 

Members of Parliament Omtzigt, van Dijk, van Bommel, Voordewind, Sjoerdsma

 

Quadruple good

What is so good about this motion is the acknowledgement that it is a bad idea to wait for another round of fruitless debate within NATO or with Russia. Kudos to the Dutch Parliament for picking up on the fact that these debates are not moving anyone closer to removing those pesky B61’s.  It is doubly good that the motion turns against modernisation of the B61’s.  It is the first time that the Dutch Parliament has really discussed modernisation and immediately came to the right conclusion: why invest 10 billion US$ in a weapon that is so obviously pointless and unwanted.  

Triple good is the fact that the motion got through at all!  For some of the parties in favour of removal of the weapons, it is the first time that they have put their weight behind the growing push for an end to B61 deployments in the Netherlands.  Quadruple good is the call on the Government to make withdrawal of TNWs part of the Dutch discourse for Oslo.  I will believe it when I see it: an official Dutch delegation stating that it would like to be nuclear weapon free while on record in Oslo, but hey, I am happy to be pleasantly surprised.

Twice bad

In politics, the reality is never as good as it should be. The repetitive use of the word ‘European’ was added only after Minister Timmermans had said that he would follow the line of the motion only if it indicates that not only the US weapons but also Russian weapons should be removed.  In the debate prior to the motion being accepted, Timmermans commented that “of course our goal is the removal of tactical or sub-strategic weapons from Europe, but always as the result of negotiation. There are also quite a few nuclear weapons on the other side of Europe, and that’s an understatement.”

If this is Timmermans’ explanation of a motion that states literally that “dialogue with Russia has not or has hardly brought us any progress”, we clearly still have a job to do making clear to the Minister that – despite what NATO nuclear staff tell you – negotiations with Russia will lead us nowhere. Ask the Russians, they will tell you. Again.

Also bad is the fact that the document is a motion, not a so-called amendment. In Dutch politics, amendments are binding, motions are not.

The Minister, inaugurated in October last year, has asked Parliament for a bit of time to consult the US and other NATO-allies.  This Spring, he will present to Parliament a ‘policy paper’ explaining his future goals and hopes with regard to nuclear weapons. The motion passed in December will certainly help to stress that the Parliament and population of the Netherlands demand a vision with a clear end goal: a country without American nuclear weapons.

In anticipation of Timmermans’ policy paper, IKV Pax Christi is undertaking several advocacy efforts. We will present to the Ministry 16 pages of unsolicited policy analysis and advice, arguing among other things that all requirements (both sufficient and necessary) are met to negotiate bilaterally with the US an end of nuclear weapon deployments in the Netherlands. In addition, we are preparing a similar document for Parliamentarians, to make sure that they have all the ‘ammunition’ they need to keep the issue on the table. Finally, we are preparing a public activity so that Dutch citizens and mayors can individually speak out in favour of withdrawal of the B61’s – with or without the blessing of NATO allies.

To sum it all up: in a two steps forward, one step back reality, this latest motion was one step forward.