On Monday 17 February, in Brussels, there will be a crucial meeting of the European Council - crucial not only for the Iraq crisis, but also for the very future of the European Union, for there is a real risk that as a political project, it will not survive the current rifts and divisions between the member countries.

The press and other media have presented a scenario consisting of two firmly opposed camps: the pro-war camp, made up of countries that have raised the flag of cross-Atlantic solidarity as the last line of the European contribution to the solution of the crisis, and the pro-peace camp, supported by the vast majority of public opinion around Europe, which intends to avert armed intervention at any cost by constantly invoking the role of the UN inspectors and thus providing the Iraqi regime with “extra time”, which is the safest guarantee for the survival of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Within the folds of these two opposing camps, which together include all the member and candidate countries of the European Union, are a number of variants, such as the proposal advocated by several governments and, it seems, by the Holy See, for a safe-conduct into exile for Saddam in exchange with him being replaced by somebody within the regime.

We the undersigned, on behalf of the thousands of people from over 100 countries and the hundreds of parliamentarians who have signed the proposal launched three weeks ago by Marco Pannella, believe that Europe should give its backing to a different scenario, based on two essential objectives:

1) in Iraq and for Iraq, as in the whole of the Middle East and the rest of the world, the real alternative is now not between "war or peace", but between "war or freedom, justice, democracy and peace".

2) the threat of war can only be averted through the exile of Saddam and the establishment by the Security Council of an interim United Nations administration (a true "provisional government" for the transition to democracy of the Iraqi regime and Iraqi society under the aegis of the UN), entrusting an international statesman, for a period of two years, with the task of bringing about the conditions for the full exercise of the fundamental rights and liberties of the people of Iraq, in keeping with the Charter of the United Nations.

The international coalition which, by approving Resolution 1441, recognised that Iraq systematically violates not only its obligation to disarm but also the most elementary human and political rights guaranteed by the international conventions and treaties, cannot now split into opposing camps and thus provide a precious alibi for the survival or even the reinforcement of the regime. It would be extremely serious if there continued to be an opposition between the "unilateral" statements of one side and the objections of the other, which ultimately justify and legitimise the non-cooperation of the Baghdad regime, as was clear in the Iraqi government’s scornful rejection of the Franco-German proposal to double the number of inspectors.

War may be necessary if all other attempts to secure fulfilment of Resolution 1441 fail. But Europe can and must come together around a common line capable of averting war and exalting the role of the United Nations for the rights and liberties of the Iraqi people, and based on the same values on which the European construction itself is founded.

We appeal to you, the heads of state and government of the European Union, to give your full backing to this proposal, to defend its spirit and its contents, and to strive to ensure that it forms the basis of the next resolution of the United Nations Security Council.

Emma Bonino
MEP

Elena Bonner
President of Andrey Sakharov Foundation

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Bronislaw Geremek
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland

Fernando Savater
Philosopher

Hussain Sinjari
President of Iraq Institute of Democracy