Common Security and Defence: EU cannot afford to systematically delegate its security to others.

22.11.2012 10:15

Common Security and Defence: EU cannot afford to systematically delegate its security to others.

Members of the European Parliament adopted Arnaud Danjean's Report today on the implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy with a very large majority (442 in favour, 92 against, 75 abstentions), at the plenary session in Strasbourg.

"Civil war in Syria, tensions between Israel and Arab countries, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, terrorism and crime in Sahel, piracy off Somalia, the terrible ongoing war in the Congo: every day, the news give us new reasons to consider that the multipolarised world of the beginning of the 21st Century is, in many respects, more dangerous than the one we were used to, less predictable and less 'organised'", said Arnaud Danjean at the debate in plenary on the Common Security and Defence Policy.

"Given this situation, it would be irresponsible to consider the Common Security and Defence Policy as a luxury or an anecdote. On the contrary, it is a strategic necessity for the European Union. We cannot afford to systematically delegate our security to others", Arnaud Danjean insisted.

For the Chairman of the EP Subcommittee on Security and Defence, even though NATO still is a cornerstone of our continent's common defence, even though the transatlantic partnership must be reaffirmed and is irreplaceable, "there are cases of crises which affect our security, and in which NATO cannot intervene (the Georgian crisis for example, and African conflicts in general), or in which the United States deem that they don't have to intervene. There is a risk that these examples might occur more often in the future."

Underlining the European Union's means of action - "the famous global approach, with a civilian-military structure, which very few world actors dispose of", Arnaud Danjean pointed out the lack of political will in this matter: "Lack of political will on the Member States' side to start with. But also, unfortunately, lack of political will or motivation from the very Institutions which are in charge of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and of the Common Security and Defence Policy".

"The strategic challenges which we are facing are huge and unprecedented: a structural and lasting decrease of defence budgets in the European countries, a reorientation of US priorities, and volatility and extreme diversity of threats", underlined Arnaud Danjean. "The choice ahead of European countries is the following: either suffer a collective strategic drop, or pull themselves together and fully use the CSDP's potential, however modest it may be", he concluded.

 

Note to editors

The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 270 Members and 3 Croatian Observer Members.

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