Thank you.

"A very interesting, one-day conference today held by Plaid, to look at security policies including the Peace Academy.

The catalyst for the idea of a Peace Academy was the shock and disappointment expressed by many people when it was announced that a Military Academy would be built in St Athan, in the Vale of Glamorgan. St Athan is a massive PFI scheme – privatising military training throughout Britain and centralising it on to one site. The scheme will be managed by the Ministry of Defence but the Metrix Consortium will provide the training. Metrix has 13 partners including Laing O’Rourke, QinetiQ, Raytheon and Augusta Westland which has very prominent links with the arms industry. The government’s aim was to save money, but the aim of the companies is to make money of course.

Though there has been much lobbying, with Labour MPs particularly working hard to ensure that Metrix and St Athan win the bid, there hasn’t been much awareness that the process was happening. No debate or vote was held in the House of Commons and no prior consultation was held with the Assembly Government either.

It is estimated that the Academy will cost billions of pounds to establish and run. The training was divided into two or three packages – Metrix has won the contract to provide the first package, but the second package has already been cancelled due to the cost. The intention is to move all this training to St Athan over the next five years. Metrix claimed that this was the single largest investment ever in Wales. They also estimated that it would create about 5,000 jobs worth £60 million pounds a year to the local economy.

Some of us were against the scheme in principle anyway. We have a tradition of peace in Plaid Cymru– and for me as a member of Plaid, we have a tradition and history of opposing military developments of this type. But we did not have the power in Wales to prevent it – this was a decision made in London.

But even for those who were willing to accept such a development, it became obvious fairly quickly that there were big problems. Apart from canceling the second package, the government had to give an additional £45 million to the consortium to keep it in business. Claims of jobs were inflated to six or seven thousand, but these claims soon dropped to three thousand, two and a half thousand ….and no-one was willing to say how many of these jobs would go to local people and what sort of jobs they would be – teachers or cleaners.

It was revealed that any state in the world would be able to buy training in St Athan– the only condition was that they had enough money.

And on top of that, supporters of the project made totally unreasonable attacks on those of us who either opposed it or merely asked questions.

Back in 2008, I was discussing this with the former MEP from Flanders, Nelly Maes. She thoroughly understood that the parliament in Flanders had been hit by a big scandal involving arms licences. They decided to establish the Peace Institute in 2004 to ensure that nothing similar could ever happen again and to ensure that the policy of the Flemish parliament was in accordance with its wishes to contribute to worldwide peace and justice.

Nelly is by now the institute’s director. It’s independent but is funded by the parliament (not the government). It’s role is to research and prepare reports on peace, disarmament and conflict resolution – in society as well as on an international level – and to look specifically at policy implications or actions taken by parliament or the government. The parliament has to consider the advice it gets from the Institute in several policy areas. ‘They don’t have to follow the advice, but if they don’t, they must give a written explanation why they do not. The Institution has also collected information on peace that’s available to the public. It performs educational peace work directly with schools.

The Peace Institute evidently made a great difference to their parliament. They could– and had to– see the effect that their decisions had on people, on the environment and on other countries.

I could see the potential for something similar in Wales. In the same way that a commitment to sustainable development has steered the work of the Assembly, a Peace Academy would make politicians aware of the true effect that their decisions – or in the case of St Athan, the decision by Westminster. It would not be possible then for a project such as this to be sold on the basis of the size of the investment and the potential number of jobs alone. One would also have to consider the effect on the local community, on the environment, on language and culture, and on the whole economy and Wales’ image internationally.

So it was that in January this year, I organised for a group from Wales to visit the Peace Institute in Brussels in order to gain a better understanding of its’ work. Having been inspired by what we’d seen, a number of meetings of Cynefin y Werin and others were organised to develop the idea for Wales. There’s been a lot of discussion since! As is often the case, everyone had their own idea of what sort of institute was needed. A focus for the work was needed, or it wouldn’t work at all. Although we wanted a body which could contribute to the education system to ensure better co-operation and peace with other organisations, for me, the most important element is that we could give advice to the assembly. That’s what will change not only individual policies but the political culture in Wales.

We succeeded in preparing an outline proposal for a Peace Academy for Wales – and decided to call it an ‘Academi’ in Welsh and an ‘Institute’ in English. Following discussions with some politicians in the Assembly, we submitted our proposal to the Assembly’s Petitions Committee at the end of last month, with over 1,500 individuals in support of it. It was submitted in the name of Cymdeithas y Cymod, The Welsh Centre for International Affairs, Cynefin y Werin and CND Cymru. The petition was received and will be discussed in the new year. It’s very possible that an invitation will be extended to other Peace Institutes to give evidence to the committee about their work.

There are several Academies or Peace Institutes in the world. One of particular interest to us in Wales exists in the Aland Islands in the Baltic – currently a part of Finland but working towards independence. They have an institution which looks not only at peace but also at the rights of minorities and at self government. The islands are themselves neutral and demilitarised. I’m organising a meeting with the Institute in Aland in the new year as well – when the weather permits!

And we hope to invite people from other Institutions in Wales to talk about their experiences and work when this subject goes in front of the committee. In the meantime we are working hard to raise awareness of this proposal and increase the support. I’m currently closely co-ordinating with people from Flanders, who will be organising a large conference in Brussels during the second half of next year when Belgium will hold the presidency of the European Union. They are inviting people from all over the world and I’m determined that we will have a deputation there of some sorts from Wales to contribute to the discussions and to learn from them.

I believe that many of us have been inspired by the idea of a Peace Academy. We all of us have plenty of protesting and campaigning ahead of us – against St Athan, against Trident, and so on. This is an opportunity to bring politicians, organisations and different bodies and communities together in a positive campaign. It’s also something we can win – very possibly by the next Assembly lections in 2011. And this would be a very different experience for us in the peace movement – not winning but winning in such a short space of time!

I hope that you too have been inspired by this idea and that you will be willing to be a part of the campaign. We as a nation wish to contribute to worldwide peace and justice. The Peace Institute would be Wales’ way of doing so."

Jill Evans ASE/MEP