In a Joint Declaration issued on Wednesday 22 May, the foreign affairs ministers of Germany, France and Poland set out their priorities for the EU’s external action during the next European mandate for a “strong geopolitical EU”.
These relate to strengthening European security and defence, ensuring the coherence of the EU’s external action so that it speaks with one voice and acts as one, and increasing Europe's influence in the world.
The ministers are therefore calling for an increase in European resources, committing themselves to spending at least 2% of their GDP on defence - Poland is already at almost 4%.
“At the European level, we are looking forward to the report to the June European Council exploring all options for mobilising funding. We need to spend our funds strategically – in order to develop the forces and capabilities we need for collective defence”, they add.
The three countries are calling for Europe’s capability gaps to be closed, specifying that the greatest needs are in the spheres of air defence, land combat capabilities, deep precision strike systems, drones, command and control capabilities, mobility and logistic capabilities, ammunition stocks as well as investments in future technologies.
Germany, France and Poland are also calling for the strengthening of industrial capacities, the development or even the joint acquisition of European capabilities.
The three countries advocate as well for strengthening the fight against information manipulation and interference activities carried out from abroad, and for European resilience. “We plan to set up a common fund to finance media resilience projects abroad”, they announce.
Germany, France and Poland are also promising a long-term European commitment to Ukraine and are calling for the success of the enlargement process involving Ukraine and Moldova to be guaranteed.
The Weimar Triangle advocate as well for greater coherence in the EU’s external action. In their view, a ‘Team Europe’ approach should be adopted between the EU institutions and the Member States to ensure that actions and messages are consistent.
They plan to explore the idea of an ‘integrated EEAS/Commission sanction team’ acting as a single EU point of contact for sanctions, to reflect on how to strengthen the role of the High Representative/Vice-President of the Commission to increase the coherence and effectiveness of external action, to set up a ‘Weimar Reflection Process’ on external relations to engage in a discussion on longer-term reforms and to work towards an approach of an ‘Integrated security for the EU’, taking more account of the nexus between internal and external security in external action.
Finally, to increase the EU’s global influence, the Triangle proposes translating international partnerships into concrete actions and making the EU’s strategic communication more effective.
To see the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/ccj (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)