On Wednesday 24 March, ahead of the European Council and the update of the industrial strategy, Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, and Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, published a joint vision of what the EU’s strategic autonomy should be and, above all, what it should not be: protectionism in disguise.
“The EU’s strategic autonomy does not imply isolationism or economic protectionism; rather it should be built on principles of multilateralism, cooperation and rules-based free trade”, the Dutch Permanent Representation to the EU said on Twitter when it published the document (‘non-paper’ in European jargon).
In a letter to the President of the European Council on 18 March, the two Member States called for an in-depth debate on the issue of strategic autonomy, which is of growing concern to some national delegations particularly attached to free trade, to be held at one of the forthcoming European Council meetings (see EUROPE 12683/15).
In the document, both Member States stress that strategic autonomy should not mean “independence”, but “resilience”. The EU must always be guided by the principle of “proportionality”, taking into account the entire value chain. For Madrid and The Hague, it is therefore necessary, as a first step, to carry out an in-depth analysis of the dependencies in the different sectors. This approach must be combined.
They want to refine joint procurement procedures, ensure reserves of strategic products when needed and provide the EU with interoperable data to help identify and assess potential threats. Both states believe that it is important that this issue be discussed in the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
To consult the Spanish-Dutch document: https://bit.ly/3soY71M (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)