C 214/74
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
16.6.2023
Wednesday 18 January 2023
70.
Emphasises the importance of developing coherent, complementary and interoperable defence capabilities to boost the security of the Euro-Atlantic area in line with the principle of the single set of forces; calls on the EU and NATO to maintain global technological leadership in military capabilities; stresses the need to ensure coherence of output between respective EU and NATO capability development planning processes; underlines the need for the EU to develop its own defence capabilities and strategic autonomy in order to also enhance its capacity to be a stronger partner to its allies; calls on the EU NATO Member States to increase their military budgets to at least 2 % of GDP in line with NATO guidelines;
71.
Welcomes the participation of the US, Canada and Norway in the PESCO project on Military Mobility, which is essential for the defence of Europe and important to increase coherence between the respective efforts of the EU and NATO to facilitate the movement of military forces; recalls nevertheless that third country participation in individual PESCO projects must be decided on a case-by-case basis, when such participation is in the EU’s strategic interest; welcomes the United Kingdom’s recent application to join the PESCO project on Military Mobility; reminds participating Member States to PESCO of the need for swift implementation of their operational and collaborative commitments; welcomes the EU-NATO Structured Dialogue on Military Mobility; welcomes the Action Plan on Military Mobility 2.0 as presented by the Commission and the VP/HR on 10 November 2022 and calls for its swift implementation in synergy with the PESCO project on Military Mobility; calls for the strengthening of the Connecting Europe Facility regarding military mobility projects; calls on Member States to act to simplify and harmonise procedures for military mobility and shorten the timelines for granting permission to enable the EU Member States to act faster and increase the efficiency of response; stresses that the new Military Mobility Action Plan must ensure that requirements in the areas of infrastructure, resilience and logistics are assessed from a military strategy perspective; underlines the need for additional funding for this flagship EU-NATO cooperation initiative; calls on the EU to consider inviting Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova to participate in PESCO projects such as military mobility;
72.
Highlights the importance of the EU’s close relationship with the United States, which is based on the shared values of democracy, freedom and the rule of law; values the United States’ and its current administration’s commitment and engagement to the territorial defence of Europe, especially in the light of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine that threatens the whole continent; takes note of the fact that the United States is also being challenged in the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s increasing military posturing stresses that EU Member States need to step up their efforts to improve European defence capabilities in order to pave the way for burden shifting in the long run, with the EU taking more responsibility for its defence;
73.
Welcomes the EU-US security and defence dialogue as an important milestone in closer transatlantic cooperation; encourages the VP/HR to devote particular attention to security in the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods in this dialogue, to include in the discussion areas such as mutual security and defence initiatives, CSDP missions and operations, disarmament and non-proliferation, counter-terrorism, improving information exchange among intelligence services, the impact of disruptive technologies, climate change, hybrid threats, cyber-defence, military mobility, crisis management and the relationship with strategic competitors;
74.
Reiterates its call for institutionalised security and defence cooperation with the United Kingdom; encourages the United Kingdom to seriously engage with the EU on pressing strategic challenges by ensuring complementarity and synergies of actions; encourages the VP/HR to invite the United Kingdom, on an ad hoc basis, to informal Council meetings of foreign affairs (and defence) ministers to exchange views on issues of common concern while fully protecting the EU’s decision-making autonomy; points out that the parallel projects for developing future combat air systems are an inefficient use of resources and therefore recommends that both projects should be merged; welcomes the UK’s support for Ukraine;
75.
Expresses strong concern about the increased instability of our neighbourhood, which often is the result of deliberate actions by malign actors who, through various actions, are weakening democratic reforms in order to ultimately weaken the EU; underlines that the EU’s security is closely interlinked with the security of our immediate neighbours in the EU’s Eastern and Southern neighbourhood as well as in the Western Balkans; calls for deeper military-security cooperation with like-minded Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, including by strengthening the security dimension of the EaP and for enhanced security and defence policy dialogues, particularly with Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova; calls for increased cooperation in the security and defence field with partners in the Southern Neighbourhood; calls on the EU to play a significant role in the Mediterranean, having become an actor with the ability to guarantee the stability of the region,