The leaders of Europe's Green parties condemned the invasion of Iraq during a weekend meeting in Brussels, insisting the Saddam Hussein-led regime could have been disarmed by United Nations weapons inspectors.
In the the resolution, the Green leaders from the existing 15 EU member-states and the enlargement countries called for "an immediate halt to this war" and an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly.
Strongly condemning the invasion ordered by US President George Bush and supported by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Greens said it was "a unilateral act of aggression" opposed by "the overwhelming majority of UN members".
"We welcome the massive protests of millions of citizens in Europe and all over the world and we stress the importance for this protest to keep its momentum," the leaders of the Green parties, including Ireland's representative, Mr Trevor Sargent, said.
The UN weapons inspectors had made considerable progress under Resolution 1441: "We are convinced that through the continuation of the weapon inspections, combined with massive international pressure, sooner or later a regime change would have been achieved."
They said members of the European Union sitting on the UN Security Council were obliged under Article 19 of the EU treaties to uphold common positions adopted by the EU: "The military attack on Iraq is in clear contradiction to the common EU position as laid down in Council declaration of February 17th."
The divisions created by the Iraqi crisis amongst EU members highlighted the need for "decisive steps" to build a real EU common foreign and security policy. "We reiterate our demand for one seat of the European Union in the Security Council," the Green leaders declared in a joint statement released after their meeting.
In a statement, Mr Sargent said there was now "a united demand" among European Greens for war to end. "I am urging Green party leaders to support cases taken in Ireland and elsewhere to establish the illegality of the US-led war on Iraq. We are also calling for a ban on the use of landmines, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, nuclear weapons and biological and chemical weapons," he said.
The Green leaders agreed the current crisis "shows once again that there is an urgent need to change the patterns of our energy policies based on oil and nuclear energy".
"The EU should take the lead in a policy oriented to diminish our dependence on oil", they said.
