The European Parliament called on Wednesday 15 January for the European Union to play a stronger role at international level.
For example, the shadow report by Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs Chair David McAllister (EPP, Germany) on ‘The implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)’, which MEPs adopted (454 in favour, 148 against and 102 abstentions), looks at areas where the EU could be more assertive at a time when multilateralism and the rules-based world order are being called into question.
MEPs therefore call for a “stronger, united, effective, proactive and more strategic EU”.
In their view, there is an urgent need to strengthen the resilience and independence of the Union by reinforcing a CFSP that is committed to peace, regional and international security, human rights, social justice, fundamental freedoms and the Rule of law in the EU, its neighbourhood and throughout the world. “This reinforced CFSP should be more coherent, including not only traditional “soft power”, but also a strong CSDP (Common Security and Defence Policy), an effective sanctions policy and cross-border anti-terrorism cooperation”, says Parliament.
Pointing out the “fundamental role” of civilian and military CSDP missions, it considers that they should be allocated the necessary human and material resources and that their operational capacity should be improved by increasing their flexibility, enhancing their effectiveness and performance on the ground and simplifying and clarifying mandates while increasing their scope.
For Parliament, a strategic revision of the ‘EU Global Strategy’ is also “timely and needed”, given some of the profound geopolitical changes that have taken place since its adoption in 2016.
While negotiations on the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) are ongoing, Parliament explains that the next MFF should reflect the objective of a ‘Geopolitical Commission’, wanting in particular a doubling of the amount of funds devoted to conflict prevention, peace-building and mediation.
Parliament also believes that, in order to be more effective and faster, the EU must move to qualified majority voting in CFSP matters and wants its own role to be increased, to become a “pillar” of the CFSP.
See the report: http://bit.ly/35Vvsp8 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)