Thursday 16 March 2017
On Saturday, 11 March, the Federal Council of the French Green Party "Europe Ecologie - les Verts" (EELV) decided to sign the Appeal for a Referendum and asks candidates to commit to nuclear disarmament and Parliamentarians to sign the bill for a referendum.
The Federal Council of the EELV party, meeting in Paris on 11-12 March 2017, and issued this statement:
We call on France to cease opposing the proposals for a Nuclear Arms Ban Treaty to lead to their elimination, and we ask France to participate in the conference and negotiations organised by the UN in 2017;
We approve the parliamentary bill to organise a referendum on the question:
« Do you want France to negotiate and ratify with all the states concerned a treaty to ban and completely eliminate nuclear weapons, with mutual and international control that is strict and effective ? »
– We sign the Apppeal for a Referendum and invite all parliamentarians to sign the referendum bill on this question ;
– We will support the campaign to gather citizens’ signatures for the bill, and then, if the referendum takes place, we will support the campaign for the answer YES;
We ask the candidates whom the EELV party supports in the 2017 presidential and legislative elections to champion these objectives and to defend moves to ban nuclear weapons;
We call on all the candidates for the French Presidency to champion these objectives and to defend moves to ban nuclear weapons;
– We agree to support the "NATO anti-summit" scheduled for Brussels on 24-25 May 2017 and to take part along with the NGOs;
– We reaffirm its programme orientations concerning policies of prevention and non-violent resolution of conflicts, of peace education, of strengthening arms control, and of dissolving NATO, with the objective of a European defense system based on prevention and non-violent resolution of conflicts.
Unanimously agreed minus 15 blank papers