On Wednesday 8 June the European Parliament called for the strengthening of the security dimension of the EU’s Eastern Partnership policy.
In the resolution by Witold Jan Waszczykowski (ECR, Poland) which they adopted (490 votes in favour, 59 against and 38 abstentions), MEPs say they are in favour of developing strategic security partnerships with some Eastern Partnership countries.
Parliament believes that the European Peace Facility should continue to be used to increase the capacity of the Eastern Partnership associated countries, in particular those facing armed aggression and/or those hosting CSDP missions, to meet their security needs. MEPs also call on Member States to increase the budget of this facility to enable the EU to strengthen the resilience and defence capabilities of the Eastern Partnership countries, such as those to counter hybrid threats.
During the plenary debate on the report on Tuesday 7 June, the Commission’s executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU would propose increasing non-lethal military assistance measures for Georgia and Moldova. “This will include support for logistics, cyber defence, military medicine, engineering and mobility capabilities. We will present them in June for adoption by the Council in July”, he explained.
Moreover, as the war in Ukraine is “a wake-up call for European defence”, it must be ensured that future CSDP missions in the Eastern Partnership region are given more resources, a higher level of ambition and revised mandates to meet the challenges faced, Parliament said.
Parliament also calls for closer cooperation with NATO and the OSCE, but also with the US on the region.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/1zc (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)