Skip to main content

Proceeding contribution from William Cash (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 23 March 2010. It occurred during Debate on bill and Committee of the Whole House (HC) on Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill [Lords].


Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill [Lords]

I am grateful to the Minister. In fact, the EU dimension that I have mentioned, which causes some hilarity with him, is a serious one. He knows that. A priority for EU member states that have signed or ratified the convention will be to persuade other EU members to sign it —he has indicated as much himself, and he said that he thinks that they will do so. Finland, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Greece are yet to sign. Some of them might have signed since the information that I have in front of me was produced—I do not know, but perhaps the Minister could elucidate. Poland, as he rightly says, has explicitly indicated that it does not intend to sign, but Finland, Estonia and Slovakia were among the countries that adopted the convention in May 2008. There are some hopes that they will sign—I do not need to go into the distinction between signing and ratification with the Minister, but he knows that it can be a serious obstacle.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
508 c161-2 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Disclosure of information Armed forces Decommissioning Deployment Arms control Cluster munitions Enforcement Powers of entry Prosecutions Treaties
Legislation
Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill (HL) 2009-10
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk