On Monday 5 September, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini unveiled a highly ambitious timeline for implementation of the global strategy she submitted at the end of June.
She told EU delegations’ ambassadors that she was planning to unveil a roadmap for implementation of timelines and tangible measures by the end of the week, as she had announced at the Bratislava Gymnich-type meeting on Friday 2 September.
At the Gymnich meeting, she said she aimed to have the first operational results by next spring, when there would also be the first report on implementation of the strategy. Mogherini added that an important part of the implementation would be the connection between domestic policies and foreign affairs work, giving the example of migration or preventing radicalisation and terrorism.
French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the ministers would adopt the roadmap at the Foreign Affairs Council in October, scheduled for 15 October, and then at the Council of 14 November they would make progress on the more tangible aspects of implementation of the strategy.
Mogherini announced in Bratislava that she would be working on a plan to implement European defence by the end of the year. The plan would stand alongside an action plan for European defence from Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, and plans that Mogherini herself will unveil on implementation of the Joint Statement with NATO signed at the Warsaw summit in July. The three documents would form a package, she said, on European defence and security with concrete proposals for action. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)