Brussels, 04/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - MEPs meeting on Wednesday 4 June for a mini-plenary session in Brussels debated the reports of Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP-ED, Poland and Helmut Khune (PES, Germany) and explained that in an effort to enhance its role in the world, the EU should not only improve the efficiency, coherence and visibility of its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) but also provide it with, “greater democratic legitimacy” by involving the European Parliament. Saryusz-Wolski said that, “European Security and Defence Policy should draw its legitimacy from both inter-governmental and European Parliament sources”. He also appealed for “parliamentary diplomacy” based on the defence of “European values”. In concrete terms, MEPs affirm that the EP should be able to more systematically take a position on each of these successive decision making stages relating to the CFSP and ESDP. The debate stressed the fact that common positions and joint action of the EU should take into account the positions taken by the EP and systematically use them for reference. While addressing journalists on Tuesday, rapporteur Saryusz-Wolski even said that the EU High Representative for CFSP, as included in the Lisbon Treaty, should consult the EP before taking new initiatives. All political groups support the idea of strengthened control of CFSP/ESDP by the EP. The president of the EPP-ED group, Josep Daul, from France affirmed that, “closer control of CFSP/ESDP by the European Parliament would strengthen these policies, insofar as it will make them more democratic and more transparent”. Angelika Beer (Greens/EFA, Germany) stressed that, “a coherent, efficient and transparent CFSP/ESDP is needed under parliamentary control”. Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck (ADLE, Belgium) asserted that, “the fact that we are having this debate in the presence of High Representative Javier Solana (which was not the case in previous years: Ed), demonstrates that Parliament has already succeeded in getting a place” in this area, which was until now strictly intergovernmental.
Lisbon Treaty. Saryusz-Wolski affirmed that, “CFSP is at a turning point” with the approaching entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Saryusz-Wolski believes that innovations in the new treaty (High Representative, European external action service, strengthened defence cooperation) will help “open a new chapter” and constitute a “qualitative leap”. Javier Solana believes that the new treaty, “we are hoping for can enter into force on 1 January 2009” and which will help “resolve certain problems” involving CFSP/ESDP. To this end, it will be “vital” for the Council, Commission and EP to work closely together to ensure effective functioning of the new provisions in the Lisbon Treaty. Solana explained that the Council should continue its preparatory work on the European external action service (in collaboration with the Commission and EP) in view of ensuring the quickest possible implementation “after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty”. On behalf of the Commission, Günter Verheugen also welcomed the new institutional additions introduced by the new treaty in the area of CFSP and underlined that the, “most important thing is that member states have the political determination to speak with one voice” in the world. The Commissioner also said that, “we have the choice, be strong together or weak on one's own”. Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck and Brian Cowley (UEN) agreed that the best institutional instruments would be useless if member states did not really have this political determination to speak with a single voice on the international scene. The two MEPs cited the example of the EU mission in Chad (difficulties obtaining the logistical capacity needed for deploying a mission) to denounce the fact that, “unfortunately, the speechifying of member states is not always followed by concrete action”. They said that the deplorable experience of Chad should not be repeated.
Reorientation of CFSP. The EP also appealed for a general reorientation of the CFSP, which according to Saryusz-Wolski should be more forward looking. He explained that, “While continuing to play the world's fire fighter, the EU should begin thinking about a long term security strategy for the next 20-30 years. We should therefore focus less on distinct geographic zones and more on horizontal questions”, which are often the basis of conflict in the world, such as poverty, energy security, migration, climate change etc. In the draft report to be voted on this Thursday, the EP is proposing to accord priority this year to, “a small number of themes that respond best to European citizens' concerns”. These include the physical insecurity of citizens (terrorism, organised crime), energy security, climate change, cyber security, space security, stability in neighbouring regions, crisis management, the prevention and resolution of conflicts, the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the management of migration and the promotion of human rights and civil liberties. As a major objective of CFSP, energy security is of particular importance to the MEPs, who are calling for the creation of a post of "special representative for the external energy policy", under the aegis of the future High Representative. They also take the view that each agreement concluded between the EU and a third country should include provisions on energy security, in order to guarantee, as Austrian member Hannes Swoboda (PES) stressed, coherence between the foreign policy and the energy policy of the EU.
Military capacity. Rapporteur Saryusz-Wolski also pleaded in favour of a European army. "The EU cannot be just a 'soft power': it must also have 'hard power'. It needs both", he told journalists on Tuesday. This means that we must develop ESDP and increase the military capacity of the EU, he repeated before the EP on Wednesday. The rapporteur on ESDP, Helmut Kuhne (PES), called for a "more balanced involvement" of the Member States in the civil and military missions of the EU. He also called for the EU to present a White Paper on the implementation of the security strategy of the EU, by the end of this year. Tobias Pflüger (GUE/NGL) spoke out against the "militarisation" of the EU and announced that his group would vote this Thursday against the Saryusz-Wolski and Kuhne reports. The Lisbon Treaty will only reinforce this tendency to make the EU into a "military organisation". "That is why I hope that the Irish will reject the Treaty in their referendum" of 12 June, said Mr Pflüger.
Budget. Mr Saryusz-Wolski also called for a re-financing of the budget for CFSP (1,740 million euros for the period 2007-2013), which he feels is "insufficient" to achieve the specific ambitions and objectives of the EU, such as Kosovo, the development and extension of the neighbourhood policy towards the South and East and the Middle East. (H.B.)