The EU heads of state and government are threatening North Korea with new actions due to its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
"The European Council will consider further responses in close consultation with partners and the EU will continue to reach out to third countries urging the full implementation of UN sanctions", the leaders state in the conclusions they adopted on Thursday 19 October. Describing North Korea's recent behaviour as "unacceptable" and as posing "a significant threat to the Korean peninsula and beyond", the 28 EU member states call on Pyongyang "to fully and unconditionally comply without delay with its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions and to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner".
Iran. The European Council also reaffirms its "full commitment" to the Iran nuclear deal, endorsing the statement by the Foreign Affairs Council of 16 October 2017. This statement calls for the full and effective implementation of the deal by all parties and encourages the member states to maintain their commitment (see EUROPE 11884).
In the area of defence, the European Council encourages those member states in a position to do so to "swiftly" notify the Council and the High Representative of their intentions to participate in the permanent structured cooperation, wanting this to be launched "before the end of the year, with a view to swiftly implementing the commitments, including the launching of first projects". The European Council also calls for an agreement on the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) "as soon as possible", "so as to have the first capability projects (...) financed in 2019".
In addition, the European leaders encourage member states "to develop flexible and sound financing mechanisms within the European Defence Fund". They highlight cross border cooperation and the mobilisation of EU support in addition to member states’ financing. "European defence industrial development will also require EU support for SME (...) investments in the area of security and defence", the leaders add.
They will return to defence issues in December (see EUROPE 11691). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)