Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-11-Speech-3-019-000"

PredicateValue (sorted: default)
rdf:type
dcterms:Date
dcterms:Is Part Of
dcterms:Language
lpv:document identification number
"en.20110511.4.3-019-000"2
lpv:hasSubsequent
lpv:speaker
lpv:spokenAs
lpv:translated text
"Mr President, Baroness Ashton, Henry Kissinger defined the world of his time as militarily bipolar, economically unipolar and politically confused. Today, international order is multipolar in all areas and, due to globalisation, is politically complex. Globalisation implies, among other things, the dispersion of centres of power and the collective management of common problems and interests. New international organisations and fora have emerged – an example is the summit diplomacy of the G20, G8, G7, etc. – and there are proposals to reform the traditional international organisations. In this context of change, and given the international legal personality of the European Union, it is vital that we urgently redefine the role that the European Union plays on this stage and that it takes its due place in the multilateral order so that it can fill the role of a relevant global player assigned to it by the Treaty and which this institution is requesting of it, along with European society at large, dare I say. This process has already begun with the approval of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on 3 May, which will allow the European Union to participate in the General Assembly’s work. This is an historic event and a diplomatic triumph that we need to recognise without equivocation and for which I congratulate you, Baroness Ashton. However, given the complicated nature of the negotiations for the approval of Resolution 1973, we can anticipate the arduous work that awaits you to update and rationalise the representation of the European Union, which is fragmented and dispersed and has an status in each of the 249 multilateral agreements involving the European Union. This does not only depend on you, clearly. It also depends on the non-EU states that are members of the various multilateral organisations. It depends also on organising the most effective form of representation within the European Union, and by organisation I mean an arrangement involving yourself – the European External Action Service – the President of the Commission, the President of the European Council and the now residual participation of the rotating presidencies of the Union. It also depends on the Member States transferring the pre-eminence of representation to the European Union, particularly in the case of international organisations committed to policies for which the European Union has exclusive competence. Baroness Ashton, we can all remember the Copenhagen climate change summit as an example of the useless cacophony that is brought about by over-representation of the European Union and its Member States. We can also remember how well representation of the Union worked in the World Trade Organisation or in the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Moreover, we can remember how disconcerting multiple representation of the various presidencies of the European Union can be in summit diplomacy, or the dysfunction that can arise through not implementing the provisions of Article 34 of the Treaty of Lisbon on the coordination of the European members of the United Nations Security Council when the common positions of the European Union are put forward. Mr Schulz has referred to these flagrant dysfunctions in his speech. I am referring, in this sense, more to the Member States than to yourself, in the call to construct the role of the European Union in a more structured multilateral world order and to draft a real EU foreign policy, setting aside any renationalising tendencies and temptations that are appearing in a number of our Member States. However, while we are essentially appealing to the Member States to construct this role of the Union, we are also appealing to your commitment to put your capacity for political initiative and your services to work in order to raise the level of the European Union’s external representation and rationalise it. We are at an historic moment for the world and you have the opportunity to lead the EU’s international role with, for example, initiatives such as the one you have announced of opening a Union office in Benghazi. You can count on the support of this Parliament, and not only its support, in fact, but also its mandate to establish a rational, structured and coherent representation of the European Union on the international stage as soon as possible."@en1
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata
lpv:videoURI

Named graphs describing this resource:

1http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/English.ttl.gz
2http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/Events_and_structure.ttl.gz
3http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/spokenAs.ttl.gz

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph