The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said on Wednesday 14 July that the Strategic Compass was “the” document of his mandate.
“I prefer to concentrate my efforts on a document that marks the future of Europe”, he told the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and the sub-committees on Security and Defence and Human Rights. The High Representative added that he intends to be ambitious and pragmatic, recalling that there is a very wide range of Member States’ positions and that it will require unanimous adoption.
According to him, and in view of the many contributions received from the Member States, “this means that they are interested, that the exercise is important, and that we need to do this, that it is obvious that we must build a common culture with regard to the threats we face”.
But for the High Representative, “enough discussions, receiving new ideas and having a shuffle of texts that pile up! We have already discussed too much, we must present a project!” This should arrive in November and the final version should be adopted in March 2022.
Borrell explained that it was better if there were a number of proposals and that the document should not “be seen as just another spiel”.
He put forward the idea of a first entry force (see EUROPE 12714/5). Explaining that everyone had welcomed the speed of the agreement to establish a mission in Mozambique - eight months, while the troops are not yet on the ground, which could take several weeks - the High Representative said that “eight months is not too fast”. “If we want to be a ‘security provider’, as soon as there is a problem, we have to act, but the next day, not in a year’s time”, he explained to justify this first entry force.
Beyond the first draft of the ‘Strategic Compass’, the High Representative is expected to present three strategies by the end of the year. These are the communication on the Arctic, scheduled for October, another on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration at the end of September and finally, still in September, the long-awaited strategy on the Indo-Pacific region. “The coming century will be written here”, Mr Borrell said. According to him, the strategy should return to connectivity, defence, the economy, innovation and research.
Asked to comment on a number of topical issues, Mr Borrell expressed surprise that at the Foreign Affairs Council on 12 July no Member State had called for sanctions against Ethiopia (see EUROPE 12760/13). A framework for sanctions against Lebanon, on the other hand, is being drafted (see EUROPE 12760/12). “We cannot turn sanctions into an instrument to serve our political interests”, the High Representative warned, adding that they should be used to sanction what needs to be sanctioned. He also admitted that while the original proposal for the human rights sanctions regime included the possibility of sanctioning corruption, the Member States removed this possibility. The European Parliament is in favour of such an introduction (see EUROPE 12758/15).
Parliament also defends the end of unanimity in foreign affairs, which requires a unanimous vote. Mr Borrell dampened MEPs’ hopes, explaining that there was “outright refusal” by many Member States and that others were silent, but of the same opinion. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)