16.6.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 214/31 Wednesday 18 January 2023
10.
Highlights that in order to achieve the geopolitical redefinition necessary to respond to the current challenges, the EU should shape its CFSP on the basis of the following four actions:
— adapting the EU’s institutional and decision-making arrangements and generating political will and unity in foreign and security policy by adopting qualified majority voting in order to allow early preventive action and rapid responses,
— operationalising strategic autonomy and solidarity while strengthening its approach to multilateralism and alliances, reducing strategic dependencies on non-democratic regimes and enhancing the Union’s resilience,
— leading the reinforcement of multilateralism, strengthening and consolidating alliances and partnerships and building new strategic partnerships for a better world with like-minded democratic partners, while addressing the assertiveness of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes,
— enhancing parliamentary diplomacy as a preventive and effective foreign policy tool;
11.
Underscores that the ambitious commitment and rhetoric of the EU’s external human rights policy requires it to be consistent and exemplary; regrets therefore that in practice, the EU continues to be inconsistent towards comparable human rights situations worldwide; deplores, further, the deterioration of the human rights and rule of law situation in a number of its own Member States, which undermines the credibility of the EU; calls on the EU and its Member States to lead by example and strictly uphold human rights;
12.
Stresses that the EU should remain committed to arms control and to multilateral agreements on disarmament and non-proliferation;
Strengthening the EU’s institutional and decision-making arrangements in foreign and security policy
13.
Welcomes the remarkable level of unity and resolve of the EU in responding swiftly and forcefully to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine; urges the Member States to maintain and, where necessary, increase this high and coherent level of support for Ukraine and its citizens in full alignment with Ukraine’s evolving needs and the EU’s commitment to Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity; calls for the same level of unity when faced with attacks against our democracies or common values in the future;
14.
Urges the Member States to maintain their unity and resolve and to build on this unprecedented level of cooperation; underscores the importance of unity and consistency with the Union’s founding values and principles and of preserving this unity and continuing to strengthen the strategic sovereignty, security and resilience of EU and the Member States through more efficient decision-making in CFSP, which could be achieved by:
(a) switching as soon as possible to qualified majority voting for decisions in all areas of the CFSP, starting with priority areas within a year, such as the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (EU Magnitsky Act) and other foreign policy areas, by using the passerelle clauses provided for in the Treaties, except for the creation of military missions or operations with an executive mandate under the CSDP, for which unanimity must still be required;
(b) convening a convention by activating the procedure for revising the Treaties provided for in Article 48 TEU, with the objective of, inter alia, enshrining qualified majority voting for all matters relating to the EU’s CFSP in the Treaties;
(c) striving to achieve a genuine military and defence union that is interoperable and complementary to the NATO Alliance and that can act independently when needed;
(d) encouraging, pending the full application of qualified majority voting to decisions without military or defence implications, the use of constructive abstention in line with Article 31(1) TEU;