According to a variety of news reports on Monday, several EU officials plan to call for the removal of all US nuclear weapons on European soil with the intention of pushing for global disarmament.
According to the Guardian, a Belgian official said that Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Luxembourg will make a joint declaration “in the next few weeks”.
The office of the Belgian prime minister, Yves Leterme, issued a statement saying: “The Belgian government wants to seize the chance provided by the US president’s call for a world without nuclear weapons.”
No official figures exist about the number of nuclear weapons in Europe, but various reports suggest that there are thought to be between 150 and 240 “tactical” nuclear weapons on European soil. Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have 10-20 each, but most are stockpiled at US bases in Italy (70-90) and in Turkey (50-90).
“The Cold War is over. It’s time to adapt our nuclear policy to the new circumstances,” wrote Claes, fellow former Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel and former prime ministers Jean-Luc Dehaene and Guy Verhofstadt.
The call comes as the controversy over new US missile shield plans in Bulgaria and Romania led Russia to announce it will base missile in Kaliningrad, which borders the European Union.
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