The European Leaders Network (ELN) issued a statement on 27 September on NATO nuclear policy, which was endorsed by a high-level group of 34 senior European leaders including former Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and Defence Ministers from Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Slovak Republic and the United Kingdom.
The statement declares that “NATO should make disarmament a core element of its approach to providing security”. It recommends that the new NATO Strategic Concept include commitments to:
• “promote both nuclear and conventional arms control and disarmament based on greater international transparency and accountability”;
• “make a significant contribution” to “reducing the roles and risks of nuclear weapons in security policies globally”;
• affirm that “the fundamental role of nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear attack;” and
• “support a further reduction and consolidation of US non-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe” since “non-strategic nuclear weapons have lost their original role of deterring massive conventional superiority”.
Among the senior leaders endorsing the statement are former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, former UK Defence Secretary Des Browne, former Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes and former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers.