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Learning Center  World View on Blood Diamonds European Policy and Laws
European Policy and Laws | The European Union (EU), being the strongest partner of most African countries and being a major donor of development aid in third world countries, has a strong capacity for dealing with crisis situations, especially those involving conflicts. EU has recognized its role and has responded by adopting a strategy for responding to and preventing armed conflict in such countries.
In 2001 the European Community (EC) adopted a Communication on Conflict Prevention whose main objectives were to:
1. make more systematic and coordinated use of EU instruments to get at the root causes of conflict,
2. improve the efficiency of actions targeting specific causes of conflict (the so-called "cross-cutting issues" such as illicit trade of diamonds and small arms),
3. improve EU capacity to react quickly to nascent conflicts, and
4. promote international co-operation with all EU’s partners.
| After the first communication a series of formal statements were issued by EC starting in May 2001 which was on the member's Common Position on conflict prevention in Africa, followed by the Goteburg Program for the Prevention of Violent Conflicts in June 2001. The Goteburg specifically states that the prevention of conflicts by peaceful means is a major priority of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Union Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). As part of this peaceful strategy they also stated that
| "The EU must support the UN-initiative regarding conflict diamonds and the creation of a world-wide certificate system."
EC's stand against conflict diamond trade was later affirmed in the Council Common Position on combating the illicit traffic in conflict diamonds as a contribution to prevention and settlement of conflicts released on October 29, 2001. The common position states that:
The European Union and its Member States shall support and contribute to the efforts of the international community to break the link between conflict diamonds and the financing of armed conflict.
The European Union notes that the community is to conduct negotiations to establish an international certification scheme in the context of a binding international agreement. And that;
Member States will discuss the question of conflict diamonds in the context of their bilateral or multilateral relations, consult, particularly in the United Nations and the fora concerned, on the most effective means of combating conflict diamonds, and call on the countries chiefly concerned to support and join the multilateral agreement drawn up under the Kimberley process.
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 | There is now a binding EC Regulation implementing the requirements of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme across the European Community (25 soon to be 27 countries). For full details, please see the European Commission website - http://ec.europa.eu/comm/external_relations/kimb/intro/index.htm
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