Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-18-Speech-3-070"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20090218.20.3-070"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, High Representative, Commissioner, this report should provide us with an opportunity to consider how far we have come with the European Union’s security and defence policy, where we are now, and what part the European Parliament has to play in this.
In so doing, we must observe that there have so far been 22 deployments within the framework of the European security and defence policy, of which 16 were civilian deployments and 6 military ones. This means that a very strong emphasis has been placed on the civilian side of things. This civilian side, of course, comes complete with functional democratic control as the civilian operations under the ESDP are funded from the European budget and are therefore scrutinised by the European Parliament. There are other things that are funded from the European Union’s budget that are directly linked to security policy. Examples include security research – EUR 1.3 billion over 7 years; Galileo, which we say there are security aspects to – EUR 3.4 billion; and GMES/Kopernikus, a project for which another EUR 1 billion is available. We also now have, and this is a new development, legislation in the European Parliament in the field of security and defence. We have adopted a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the intra-Community transfer of defence equipment and on tendering in the field of security and defence. This is an important first step along the road.
Of particular importance, however, is the information for the European Parliament. In this regard, our special committee, which also has access to secret information, is of particular importance, as are the regular discussions that we hold in this committee with the Special Representative on these subjects. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the High Representative and his colleagues for the constructive cooperation that has developed.
I shall turn now to the individual points of this report. This report calls for the European Union to define its own security interests more clearly. We always speak of the security interests of the individual countries, but we do have common security interests. The protection of our citizens within and beyond the Union, peace in our neighbourhood, the protection of our external borders, the protection of our critical infrastructures, energy security, the security of our trade routes, the security of our assets at the global level and many other things represent, in reality, individual security interests and common security interests of the European Union.
We also need to consider what the security and defence-related ambitions of the European Union actually are. The draft report states very clearly that we have no ambition to become a superpower like the United States. It is also made very clear that we must concentrate on the geographical surroundings of the European Union. Our priorities are the Balkans – the European Union’s main assignments – North Africa, the frozen conflicts in the East and our contribution to resolving the conflict in Palestine. We must put our focus quite clearly on these areas.
I feel compelled to observe that, at the end of the French Presidency, the Council set very ambitious objectives, namely acquiring the ability to carry out certain operations in parallel. If that is what we want, we will need the funds to bring it about. This will involve the establishment of an autonomous and permanent headquarters in Brussels. This is a first, very clear demand from this Parliament. There was a very broad majority in favour of this in the committee. Secondly, we need to bear in mind that the 27 Member States have 2 million soldiers at their disposal. Three per cent of these soldiers should be made available to the European Union on a permanent basis. That would be 60 000 soldiers. This is why the report also calls for the Eurocorps to also be permanently assigned to the European Union. This call is aimed at the six Member States that make up the Eurocorps.
We then make clear statements about the capabilities that we need to develop. The 27 Member States of the European Union spend EUR 200 billion per annum on defence, and this EUR 200 billion must be better spent than it has been in the past. We cannot afford to re-invent the wheel 27 times and we are therefore asking you today to ensure that, in future, where the European Union’s and the taxpayers’ money is spent on defence, it is better spent than it was in the past. Thank you very much."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples