Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-182"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20011024.8.3-182"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I congratulate Mr Brok on his comprehensive report, and I agree with him that we have made enormous progress in terms of foreign and security policy. Almost every time I open a newspaper, I see the names Patten and Solana in connection with some new trouble spot in the world. He is right to say that we have responded to the current crisis with a coherence and unity that we would not have thought possible only four or five years ago. He is right to say that the coalition against terror would not have been possible without the progress we have made within the EU to bring about that unity and coherence.
Clearly a lot still needs to be done, and we have to take advantage of the current crisis to perhaps change the emphasis in our work. We spend something like 60% of what the Americans spend on defence, but we spend 400% of what the Americans spend on what might be called ‘soft intervention’ – humanitarian aid and assistance. We need to try to change that emphasis. The Americans need to learn from this crisis that security is not just a matter of power projection. You can have all the weapons in the world, but you will be unable to defend yourself against a few people armed with box cutters. We need to have a multinational approach to the global problems.
For our part we have to realise that we must have greater military capability in order to back up our actions. That is why the capability process currently under way is so important. We must put some teeth into our common foreign and security policy. That is why I am disappointed with the news that Italy is likely to pull out of the project for A400M aircraft. We need strategic lift. It is often ironic that the countries that most engage in rhetoric about European cooperation are those that often fail to produce the action.
One final observation is that at the moment we are seeing a warming of relations with Iran and Syria. I should like to remind colleagues that there are a number of Israeli soldiers and civilians held hostage by forces sympathetic to, or controlled by, Iran and Syria. These people are missing in action and I would hope the Commission and the Council would use this opportunity to get those hostages restored to their families."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples