The foreign ministers of the three so-called Weimar Triangle countries (Germany, Poland and France) would like to give new impetus to the European Union through increased cooperation from its member states, following the British decision to leave the EU (EUROPE 11580).
Meeting in Weimar on Sunday 28 August, Frank-Walter Steinmeier from Germany, Witold Waszczykowski from Poland and Jean-Marc Ayrault from France stated that they would have "preferred to keep the UK in the EU", but that they respected its sovereign decision to leave. They said they were "very interested in close cooperation with the UK to address the common challenges that Europe must face in the 21st century".
Recognising that the UK's departure is a "significant challenge for European cohesion", the three foreign ministers are "convinced that the EU provides the natural, forward-looking and essential framework for ensuring Europe's freedom, prosperity and security (...) and for contributing to peace and stability in the world".
"We want to strengthen the EU and its foundations of European integration by demonstrating the EU's capacity to take action", the three ministers write, especially "in the area of internal and external security, in issues linked to migrants and refugees, and in strengthening competitiveness, growth and young people's employment ".
Focusing on the essential. The three ministers also think that "focusing on the essential involves our leaving other subjects to national and regional decision-making processes when these seem better placed for action to achieve our common goals". By "reconnecting with a policy of growth and employment, the EU will send a strong message to European young people, who should be able to take advantage of European integration in the framework of ambitious programmes", they state. The existing arrangements for training, promoting entrepreneurship, mobility and access to jobs must also be strongly enhanced.
The three ministers say they support a "stronger and safer Europe, equipped with a deeper and more effective common security and defence policy". They believe it is "necessary to use all the articles of the treaty on the EU - including those that have not yet been used and that give us maximum flexibility - so as to strengthen cooperation on defence and make it deeper, and to respond to the whole spectrum of crises".
"The EU (...) needs a European civil and military planning capacity and a capacity for conducting operations", they say, highlighting the need for the development of a strong and competitive defence industry in Europe. Steinmeier, Waszczykowski and Ayrault would also like the necessary measures to be taken quickly for implementing the global strategy presented by High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherhini at the end of June (EUROPE 11581). "We advocate a strategy of substantial monitoring in the area of security and defence", the ministers add, who would also like "an annual European Security Council", that would deal with strategic issues of internal and external security (see Europe Diplomacy & Defence, EDD 914). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Camille-Cerise Gessant)