OpenLegislation

Division 2

United Kingdom

Original text. Later amendments are not shown.

To that end, the Union will support the following nine projects:

  1. (a)

    Sustaining IMS AS stations hosted in countries that need support;

  2. (b)

    Global radio-xenon background characterisation project;

  3. (c)

    vDEC administration and associated activities;

  4. (d)

    Support for Phase 2 IDC SHI re-engineering;

  5. (e)

    Xenon mitigation;

  6. (f)

    Increasing test coverage for IDC applications;

  7. (g)

    Hardware enhancements to the OSI MSIR system;

  8. (h)

    Training and workshops in SEAPFE and MESA, Capacity Building System Maintenance and Outreach to the Scientific and Policy-Making/Diplomatic Communities; and

  9. (i)

    Extended NDC-in-a-Box.

The prospects of entry into force of the CTBT have improved due to a more favourable political environment, which is also demonstrated by recent new signatures and ratifications of the CTBT, including by Indonesia, one of the States listed in Annex 2 to the CTBT. Given this positive dynamic, in the coming years an increased and urgent focus needs to be put on both completing the build-up of the CTBT verification regime and ensuring its readiness and operational capability, as well as continuing work towards the entry into force and universalisation of the CTBT. The nuclear tests carried out by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in October 2006, May 2009 and February 2013 not only demonstrated the importance of a universal ban on nuclear tests, they also underscored the need for an effective verification regime to monitor compliance with such a ban. A fully operational and credible CTBT verification regime will provide the international community with reliable and independent means to ensure that this ban is respected. Moreover, the CTBTO data also play a crucial role in timely tsunami warning and the assessment of the dispersal of radioactive emissions after the Fukushima nuclear accident of March 2011.

Supporting those projects reinforces the objectives of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. The implementation of those complex projects will contribute significantly to improving effective multilateral responses to current security challenges. In particular, those projects will further the objectives of the EU Strategy against Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, including to further universalise and strengthen the norms contained in the CTBT as well as its verification regime. The Preparatory Commission is building an IMS to ensure that no nuclear explosion goes undetected. Based on its unique expertise through a worldwide IMS AS network, comprising over 280 facilities in 85 countries, and the IDC, the Preparatory Commission is the sole organisation with the capacity to implement those projects, which can only be financed through an extra-budgetary contribution to the Preparatory Commission.

In Joint Action 2006/243/CFSP, Joint Action 2007/468/CFSP, Joint Action 2008/588/CFSP, Decision 2010/461/CFSP and Decision 2012/699/CFSP, the Union has supported the establishment of an E-learning training program, the Integrated Field Exercise 2008 in respect of OSI and the Integrated Field Exercise 2014 (IFE14), Radio-Xenon Assessment and Measurement, Characterisation and Mitigation, Technical Assistance and Capacity Building, Developing Capacity for Future Generations of CTBT Experts, Enhancing the Atmospheric Transport Model (ATM), AS stations, strengthening cooperation with the scientific community, strengthening the OSI capabilities with the development of a noble gas detection system, and the Pilot Project to support the participation of experts from developing countries in technical and policy making meetings of the Preparatory Commission. The projects under this Decision build upon the previous Joint Action projects and progress achieved through their implementation. The projects under this Decision are such as to avoid any potential overlaps with Decision 2012/699/CFSP. Some of the projects under this Decision contain elements that are similar to activities undertaken under previous Joint Actions, but differ in material scope or target different recipient countries or regions.

In addition to other voluntary contributions and contributions-in-kind received by the CTBTO in support of its activities from donors, such as EU and non-EU States, institutions, and others, the nine projects, mentioned above, in support of activities of the Preparatory Commission will be implemented and managed by the PTS.