Mr Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia* , the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia align themselves with this declaration.
At the outset allow me to congratulate you on the assumption of the Chairmanship of this year’s meetings of the BTWC. You can count on our full support. I also want to thank you, and the Implementation Support Unit, for all your excellent preparations for this meeting of experts.
The potential misuse of life sciences and the risk of any type of actor developing a biological weapon can lead to high risk scenarios. These are a major challenge to the international community.
The European Union supports the BTWC as a key component of the international non-proliferation and disarmament framework. The BTWC is the cornerstone of international efforts to prevent biological agents from ever being developed and used as weapons. We actively promote the universalisation and national implementation of and full compliance with the Treaty. The European Union also remains committed to working with a long term view to develop measures to verify compliance with the BTWC.
Lately the bio-risk spectrum has often been described in international fora as ranging from natural disease outbreaks via accidents and negligence to vandalism/sabotage to the deliberate use of biological weapons. It was highlighted recently at the workshop in Oslo 18-19 June this year, "The Biological Weapons Convention Supporting Global Health: Reducing Biological Risk by Building Capacity in Health Security" that it is more appropriate than ever to focus on international cooperation and support to strengthen national structures and capabilities for preventing, detecting and treatment of infectious human, animal and plant diseases.
It is therefore very timely that we gather here to discuss the themes for this year’s BTWC Meeting of Experts.
Diseases and pests do not respect territorial boundaries. Therefore, maximum cooperation and assistance in areas concerning disease surveillance, detection, diagnosis, and containment of infectious disease would benefit global health and ultimately the entire BTWC norm. Therefore, it is of extreme importance to enhance international cooperation, assistance and exchange in biological sciences including biotechnology for peaceful purposes.
International cooperation and information sharing of the advancements in life sciences are the only options for successful and sustainable control and eradication of new and old infectious diseases that continue to emerge world wide. One can be optimistic that the progress in life sciences will provide further possibilities for international cooperation and assistance in the areas relevant for combating infectious diseases as well as for supporting the BTWC.
In this context, the Meeting should identify needs and requests from State Parties in need of assistance. This input from potential receiving states is crucial. Assistance should be given in a sustainable manner. This means that the receiving country should have ownership and all relevant stakeholders should be involved. These indications of need would allow State Parties, the EU and other international organizations which are in a position to provide assistance to identify assistance opportunities.
In this context, national implementation of the WHO International Health Regulation (IHR, revised in 2005) deserves particular attention since the IHR aim to prevent, protect against, control and respond to the international spread of disease while avoiding unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade.
International cooperation involving and supporting international organisations like WHO, FAO, OIE and IPPC as well as with non-governmental actors working on infectious diseases will also in the future be the key to strengthening structures and capacities in disease surveillance, detection, diagnostics, and containment of infectious diseases.
While a lot of emphasis can be put on the importance of involvement of international organisations and member states there is clearly also a need for involvement and support from the European Union. The basis for EU action is the European Union strategy against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) adopted on 9 December 2003. In December 2008 the EU Council adopted a document defining "New lines for action in combating the proliferation of WMD". These lines imply that we must intensify our work against the proliferation of biological weapons.
Currently, the two Joint Actions relevant to the BTWC are being implemented, which show our political and financial commitment: - In April 2008, the EU Council adopted a Joint Action in support of WHO activities in the area of bio-safety and bio-security. There will be one in-country project and different other workshops and assistance activities. - As a follow up to our first Joint Action supporting the BTWC, in November 2008, the EU Council adopted a second Joint Action in Support of the BTWC, with projects and activities related to the universalisation of the Convention, national implementation, promotion of CBMs and support to the BTWC inter-sessional process. During this week's expert meeting, the EU will carry out a number of specific activities: - The EU Joint Action in Support of the BTWC will be presented in more detail at our launching event today at 13.00 in room XXIII, to which you are all cordially invited. - There will also be a presentation of the Joint Action in support of the WHO activities in the area of laboratory bio-safety and bio-security. You are equally warmly welcome to the launching event for this Joint Action which will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, at 08.30 in room XXIII.- The EU will also present its activities, including the Joint Actions I have mentioned, in a separate Working Paper.- The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) established in 2005 aims to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases by identifying, assessing and communicating current and emerging threats to human health posed by infectious diseases. The ECDC works in partnership with national health protection bodies across Europe and international organisations to strengthen and develop continent-wide disease surveillance and early warning systems. During this expert meeting, the EU invited representatives from ECDC to make a presentation on surveillance of communicable diseases. The EU is looking forward to a productive and interesting week here in Geneva. We hope that with our Joint Actions we can contribute to the topic of this meeting, cooperation. We look forward to reactions of interested countries to our planned workshops and other assistance activities. We are ready to discuss any questions you might have in the margins of the meeting. Mr. Chairman, thank you.