The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden pleaded, in an informal document obtained by EUROPE, for the realisation of the EU's "potential” as a global actor.
“The EU must significantly increase its ability to act on key foreign policy issues and lead the way in fighting for and improving the international rules-based order”, they said in this document initiated by the Dutch for the discussion on 'the effectiveness of the CFSP - the Common Foreign and Security Policy' scheduled for the Foreign Affairs Council on 17 June.
They thus propose three areas for discussion by the Council: strong cohesion, greater coherence and increased effectiveness.
The nine countries support strong cohesion, recalling that unity is the foundation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). However, this unity, although strong, is "increasingly being tested by dynamics both within and outside the EU", according to them. They are therefore considering how to strengthen the unity of the EU and to provide new impetus to the search for consensus.
The document calls for greater coherence between European institutions and the Member States and raises questions about how to ensure better coordination and greater complementarity and coherence in the use of tools, both internal and external. The strengthening of the “close cooperation” between the European External Action Service (EEAS) is also highlighted, as is the strengthening of the “field perspective in Brussels and the Brussels perspective in the field”.
The nine signatories also call for increased effectiveness, asserting that rapid and results-oriented action is crucial for the EU's effectiveness as a global actor. “We need to spend less time coordinating ourselves, more time coordinating and building partnerships with other actors on the international scene", they said. They are therefore considering how to enhance the EU's effectiveness and coherence in multilateral fora, including the United Nations, and how to increase the EU's outreach for building global alliances in order to strengthen the rules-based order and to pursue its reform.
States also want to improve working methods to prepare for meetings of the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Council, so that it can be done in a more results-oriented manner and to ensure effective follow-up (see EUROPE 12091/17). “How might we make better use of existing possibilities to further decision-making on the CFSP”, they ask themselves.
Last April, the European Commission proposed to move to qualified majority voting for certain decisions in this area (see EUROPE 12094/4). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Hermine Donceel)