Debate: Annual report on the implementation of the common foreign and security policy - Annual report on the implementation of the common security and defence policy
Date: TUESDAY, 14 JANUARY 2020
Speaker: Josep Borrell Fontelles
Language: FR

Tout d’abord, je suis heureux de voir que nous continuons à porter ces valeurs au centre de notre action. Nous sommes et nous devons continuer à être une puissance basée sur des principes, et le multilatéralisme est un ordre international basé sur des règles, c’est la base de notre politique étrangère. I am also pleased that you recognise that we need to be more assertive. We now have to prove that we need to be more assertive with respect to Libya, with respect to almost everywhere, in terms of the problems we are facing. We need to be more assertive in protecting our vital interests. We live in a world of power politics and we need a truly integrated foreign policy that combines the power of Member States with the coordinated mobilisation of our instruments, and as your report states, we need to strengthen the links between internal and external policies. This has been said many times. It is good to repeat it; it would be much better to implement it. I welcome the emphasis you put on the importance of securing adequate financial resources. For external action under the next Multiannual Financial Framework, we are going to see soon if it is possible or not. In particular, we need to preserve the envelopes for the neighbourhood and sub-Saharan Africa in the new proposed instrument. Yesterday I was with the President of the French Republic and with the Presidents of the five Saharan countries, and the issue of the resources that we need in order to help them to face their security problems – which are our security problems – was on the table. I wonder if the answer we are going to be able to give to them the next day is good enough. Partnership: you rightly point out that for everything we want to do, we need partners. We want to be multilateral, but one cannot be multilateral alone. To dance the tango you need two; to be multilateral you need several. We need to link up with like-minded allies, with the regional blocs like the African Union or ASEAN, and above all, the United Nations. Take, for instance, climate change. The Council asked me at the last meeting of the European Council to develop a strong climate diplomacy in order to ensure that our climate ambitions can be shared in partnership with other states in the world, because if not, our efforts will be completely useless. We must engage with others in order to ensure that they are on board in our climate action in order for it to be really successful. Credibility: it’s clear that we will lose credibility as a geopolitical power if we cannot deliver stability and security in our immediate vicinity. If we are not able to solve or help to solve the problems of Libya or the Western Balkans, it’s going to be quite difficult to convince anyone that we are a geopolitical power. It’s clear that we must step up our support to Kenyan sovereignty and resilience. On Kosovo, we haven’t been able to travel to Kosovo because Kosovars don’t have a government, but even if they do not have a government by the end of the next month, we will have to travel to Kosovo and Serbia in order to reiterate our commitment to the European perspective for the entire region. We have some complicated relations with some of our other neighbours. Recent activities by Turkey affected the security and the interests of our Member States in the wider region and are of real concern. The central Mediterranean is suffering an extraordinary change from a geopolitical point of view, and some actors like Russia and Turkey, which were not showing up there six months ago, are now taking the lead in trying to solve this problem. You have to pay special attention, you are right, to the southern neighbourhood – Libya, Iran, Iraq – which are protagonising the debate today. We have been at the forefront of efforts aimed at de-escalation, but in the end, who is sitting at the table with Sarraj and Haftar in order to try to reach an agreement on the ceasefire is not the European Union, it’s Russia and Turkey. Africa: let’s talk a lot about Africa, a continent of both promises and challenges. The Council mandated the High Representative and the Commission to present, by the June meeting, a comprehensive action plan for Africa, and believe me, from now till June there’s not too much time to build this comprehensive action plan with Africa, because we cannot do it alone. We cannot have a plan for Africa without the Africans. It started in the Sahel, and President Macron yesterday called a very interesting meeting, asking the G5 countries of the Sahel to come and to talk about what we can do together, much as we will do the same thing in our college meeting with the African Union in Addis Ababa next February. Latin America: Latin America is burning, from Chile to Mexico. There are a lot of great difficulties there, and we should work to strengthen our cooperation. To pursue our interest in Asia, which remains stable and prosperous, maybe the most stable and prosperous region in the world today. Tomorrow we will be travelling to New Delhi to attend the Raisina Dialogue and strengthen our strategic partnership with India, and also we will do that soon with China, to prepare the summit. CSDP: the CSDP report, which addresses the impressive development of the Union’s common security and defence policy on the challenges that lie ahead. Here the urgency is clear. In a geopolitical world, the EU has no choice but to strengthen its capacities to protect itself and become a more credible security provider. The beating heart of the CSDP are today the 17 missions and operations deployed in different regions beyond our borders. And I have to salute the enthusiasm and devotion of the thousand men and women who are serving the European Union Flag in sometimes dangerous circumstances. In your report you point out, rightly, that we need to address persistent structural issues that are affecting our missions. We need to make sure that the CSDP missions become more robust, both in terms of human resources and of their mandate. I welcome the political support for the creation of the proposed off-budget European Peace Facility, designated to help our partners to take care of their own security by building their own capabilities. This is important when it’s again, for example, in the Sahel countries. Taking a greater role in the world requires developing what is called a ‘strategic autonomy’: some words that are sometimes conflictual, and not everybody understands them in the same way. This is a sensitive term, but in this context it essentially means that we have to strengthen our capacity to act with partners where possible, alone if necessary. And your report highlights that this does not mean that the European Union is forsaking its partnership; on the contrary, it will make the European Union itself a stronger global partner, and it will also benefit NATO, because a stronger European Union and a stronger NATO go hand in hand. Let me highlight the importance of the Permanent Structured Cooperation and European Defence Fund. You, the Parliament, will have to decide the amount of resources devoted to this defence fund as much as to the Peace Facility, which will be the cornerstone of our future CSDP projects. Many things can be said about what we are trying to do, and your report covers them very well. I can say that I agree a lot with everything you present in this report. I just want to stress the importance of the new frontiers of artificial intelligence, which will have geopolitical implications by empowering both competing state and hostile non-state actors. We need to remain in the lead, both in the global discussions on norms and rules as well as in the development and application of all technologies to promote our own security. I’m sure Europeans are not aware of how important this issue is: what are going to be the consequences of the developing of artificial intelligence technologies for our security in the future to come? Not a long-range future; the next five years will be decisive for that. Space and maritime are other strategic sectors where we need to ensure our coordinated use of different European Union internal and external policies and instruments. Here I would like to highlight, as your report does, that the European Union Satellite Centre will require relevant structural funding, especially from the European Union budget, to maintain its contribution to our actions. It’s becoming quite impossible to believe that we can develop actions all over the world if we are not able to observe how the world is. We have a satellite centre that cannot be lacking resources in order to fulfil its mission. In conclusion, the stakes are high and the challenges formidable. We need to keep the momentum on strengthening our common security and defence policy, and there are some problems in our immediate neighbourhood and the immediate future that will represent some proof of the capacity and the willingness of the European Union Member States to play this role. Libya: let me give this example. Just imagine that there is a ceasefire, and in Berlin we get an agreement in order to build a political solution – let’s imagine. But any ceasefire can last not a couple of weeks without a strong monitoring procedure. Are we going to be ready to do so? That’s a question that we will have to answer in the near future.