Debate: Strengthening European Defence in a volatile geopolitical landscape - Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report  - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report
Date: WEDNESDAY, 28 FEBRUARY 2024
Speaker: Manfred Weber
Political group: PPE
Country: Austria
Language: EN

For us, first of all, I want to underline that the subject itself is not innovative at all. I said it already in my last speech: in 1945, Adenauer, Schuman, De Gasperi started with the Defence Union. The French Parliament rejected, De Gasperi had tears in his eyes after it failed in the French Parliament.  The idea, in 1954, was, after the Second World War, unifying armies, never again war in Europe. What a fascinating idea behind it – and we are back to this debate. We are back to this debate – again we discuss this subject with the idea never again war in Europe. But that means today to be strong, and that’s why we are so happy to have this debate.  The first point, from an EPP perspective, is: the debate about NATO-EU is, for us, not a debate at all. The NATO is fundamental for us. We also welcome Finland and Sweden joining the NATO. The EPP parties in Finland always were in favour – even when it was unpopular in the country – in favour of joining. Socialists finally also are supporting now joining the NATO from the both countries, so welcome in the club.  But there is a good outcome. We have them now among us and, in the long run, we must understand that 330 million Americans will not defend, in the long run, 440 million Europeans. We have to do it by our own means. That’s why it’s not in contradiction, it’s the same as what we are doing here to strengthen NATO with a strong EU pillar.  The concrete actions is now to implement the European single market, and there we welcome very much the presentation of Ursula von der Leyen, the ambitions of Ursula von der Leyen. The Americans have one tank, we have 17 different kinds of tanks. The Americans have 30 weapon systems, we have 160 weapon systems. It’s so obvious that we are wasting money.  We have to buy European. We have to care about our jobs. We have to do common export rules for the future, to have common industry in defence. We need to coordinate all this. That’s why the idea to have a Commissioner responsible for doing so is exactly what we need – and on short term, we have to finance it. So, the EIB development is a good one, but I want to add also that, on the taxonomy rules, we have to rethink them, because, currently, taxonomy rules are also an obstacle for financing defence goods. That’s why we have to make it possible that the private sector is financing this.  Listening to the Council speaker, I have to say that we heard so much already about these kind of speeches, that it is national responsibility. My clear demand is: stop speaking, please act now, on the Council side.  We need also joint actions about the areas where we have an obvious European added value, and it is about cyber defence, about a missile defence shield, about the joint mission, for example, in the future of sub-Sahara to not hand over the region to Wagner troops or to the Islamist terrorists. That is another point for us that we have to care about the current state of play, on defending Ukraine.   Erlauben Sie mir, auf Deutsch weiterzumachen. Wir spüren, dass die Geschlossenheit in der Europäischen Union leider Gottes bröckelt. Ich bin enttäuscht über das, was manche Führer auf nationaler Ebene die letzten Tage von sich gegeben haben. Emmanuel Macron hat eine sinnlose Debatte angestoßen über die Fragestellung, ob französische Truppen in der Ukraine eingesetzt werden. Diese Debatte war sinnlos und sie hat Europa und die westliche Hemisphäre gespalten. Und das Zweite: Der deutsche Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz hat in Deutschland die Weisung ausgegeben, mit der Lieferung von-Taurus Raketen würde Deutschland Kriegspartei werden, was rechtlich falsch ist und was er ja leider Gottes bei den Leopard-Panzern auch schon formuliert hat, was nur die russische Propaganda bestätigt, nämlich, dass damit einige Teile Deutschlands, Europas Teil des Kriegs werden könnten. Beide Führer haben zur Spaltung Europas beigetragen und nicht zur Einheit Europas. Ich kann nur sagen: Hört damit auf! Putin hasst die Art, wie wir leben. Die Ukraine darf nicht fallen. Wir müssen Russland stoppen. Appeasement funktioniert nicht, wie wir es bei Nord Stream 2 erlebt haben. Und deswegen: Danke an Ursula von der Leyen, Roberta Metsola, Donald Tusk, der sehr stark war. Ich möchte auch Giorgia Meloni erwähnen, die im G7-Gipfel eine starke Rolle gespielt hat. Wir brauchen jetzt Menschen, die zusammenführen, die Einigung zeigen, und nicht Menschen, die spalten. Und deshalb: Putin versteht nur die Methode der Stärke. Und ich möchte am Schluss George Washington zitieren:  ‘The best way to prevent war is to prepare for it.’