Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-22-Speech-2-376"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070522.30.2-376"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, honourable Members, I am glad to have the opportunity to discuss Mr Brok’s report with you all, even though we are doing it at a time of night when we might rather be in bed.
In the event of additional resources being required for the CFSP budget, we will have to work with your House to find a suitable solution, taking into account the need to respond to unforeseen crises and emergencies in other foreign policy areas.
I could, right now, go into the individual issues, but I do think you would rather I broke off for the moment now and then answered a few specific questions after the debate.
The Common Foreign and Security Policy is a crucially important element in the EU’s foreign policy, and one in which the treaties require that the Commission be fully involved, participating in debates at every level within the Council’s structures, being a permanent member of the troika, and managing and implementing the CFSP’s budget. Through all the measures under the first pillar, we also help to work towards the European Union’s foreign policy goals, and it is of vital importance to us that the EU should have at its disposal a fully integrated foreign policy drawing not only on the Common Foreign and Security Policy but also on the Community dimension and hence on the measures taken by the Member States. We seek to be what one might describe as the cogs in a well-oiled machine.
I would now like to pick up some of the issues raised in this very comprehensive report.
Where the foreign policy dimension of the constitutional treaty is concerned, I, too, take the view that its implementation would make the CFSP more efficient, more coherent and more visible, but we should not draw from that the conclusion that things cannot be improved in the interim or that they have not been.
What counts in this context is what happens on the ground and what emerges from it, and in this respect there have been considerable improvements; only recently, we have been able to satisfy ourselves that cooperation between the Council, the Member States and the Commission had improved, as had the harmonisation of our action and measures in preparing a solution to the issue of the status of Kosovo, the promotion of the rule of law in Afghanistan through greater efforts towards measures in the areas of policing and the justice system, where policing falls within the remit of the Council and of its secretariat, while we deal with the justice system and military action is taken under NATO auspices. One might also cite as example the support for the Middle East peace process, with the EU having sent a mission to assist with border controls at the Rafah crossing point, support for the reform of the security sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo and also the funding of the peacekeeping operations in Somalia and the Sudan through the Peace Facility for Africa, not to mention the observation and monitoring operation in Aceh.
All these cost-intensive, but politically very important undertakings make it necessary that we should, in order to achieve our objectives, draw the necessary resources not only from the budget for the Common Foreign and Security Policy but also from the Community instruments, including the new stability instrument. I would like to add that the stability instrument is showing itself to be very flexible in this respect, in that it enables us to respond to crises quickly and to build up the necessary capacities.
By cooperating in crisis situations and in meeting other foreign policy challenges, we are in fact already preparing the way for the implementation of the foreign policy provisions in the constitutional treaty, thereby also enhancing the European Union’s role in the world, which is what its citizens want, and this is also, quite rightly, stressed in the report.
The European Parliament, too, plays a very considerable part in the EU’s foreign policy, and it is for that reason that I attach great importance to our regular exchanges with you, whether in meetings of the plenary or of your committees, in which we should never lose sight of the common challenge that we face, that of making our influence more effectively felt throughout the world.
As is rightly emphasised in the report, it is equally important that the Common Foreign and Security Policy be properly funded, and so the funds for the new financial period were topped up to a considerable degree, particularly in comparison to other policy areas. Turning to the 2007 Budget, we all know that 2007 will be an extraordinary year in terms of the demands that will be made on the Budget, the two most important of which will be, without a doubt, Kosovo and the peace process in the Middle East. In Kosovo, as soon as we have managed to secure agreement on its final status and the UN Security Council in New York has adopted a resolution, a major – perhaps even the biggest yet – ESDP operation will be set in motion, and the Commission and the Council are already working hard on preparing it. As regards the peace process in the Middle East, we have to ensure that the aid to the Palestinian people is maintained."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples