Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-09-11-Speech-2-526-000"
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"en.20120911.37.2-526-000"2
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"Mr President, Baroness Ashton, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to be able to present to you today, on behalf of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the annual report on the common foreign and security policy (CFSP). I am also pleased to be able to report that over the last two days, we have come to an agreement with the national parliaments to establish a standing conference involving the European Parliament and the national parliaments under conditions that bode well for the future. During this conference, I had the impression that all the national parliaments in the European Union are interested in the success of the foreign and security policy and that the cooperation and the focus on the democratic legitimation of this policy will be worthwhile.
I am glad that we can do this at a time when we are seeing the first successes since the European External Action Service (EEAS) was set up. This has been a difficult process and is definitely not yet at an end. However, the first stabilising elements are emerging and it became clear during the course of the conference with the EU’s ambassadors from all over the world last week that a team is gradually developing.
We need a coherent foreign and security policy which puts the emphasis on setting clear priorities and using resources appropriately. Coherence, efficiency and legitimation are important factors. We hope that, because of the opportunities offered by the Treaty of Lisbon and the fact that one person and one service have been given all the responsibility, it will be possible to achieve further synergies which will lead to a uniform foreign policy strategy for the European Union. I believe that there is still potential for improvement at the top, including the leadership at a European level. The principle of unanimity generally still applies and, as a result of the quality of the leadership, this will bring the national states closer to a one-voice policy. I believe that this is important.
We are critical of some areas, but we have praise for others. I must say, Baroness Ashton, that we took a positive view of your approach to Iran’s nuclear programme and of your policy in Syria and the Middle East, where US foreign policy has largely failed in recent months. However, we are still focusing to a certain extent on synergies and a coherent overall policy. We believe that there are gaps and we hope that the situation will continue to develop in this respect.
The national parliaments can play an important role, not only in terms of democratic legitimation, but also by cooperating, for example, with the parliaments of the Arab Spring as part of the neighbourhood policy. They can also make a contribution to ensuring that the Eastern Neighbourhood Policy leads to more democracy and the rule of law. This could also give us the power to achieve greater legitimation and credibility, so that we can play a more important foreign policy role. These are important tasks that we need to work on.
We must look after the interests of our citizens. We must ensure that human rights are part of this coherent policy and that we achieve a sensible balance between national interests and human rights in the context of neighbourhood policy, trade policy and other areas. I hope that the appointment of a new Special Representative for human rights will play an important role in this respect.
However, we must also be aware that, alongside the need for greater military cooperation, which will help to achieve synergies in these areas, our security policy and foreign policy influence should increasingly be guided by economic policy. Wars are often won nowadays not using tanks, but using financial markets. For this reason, we must also understand that the strength of the European Union is largely dependent on whether it can resolve its internal economic, monetary and fiscal crisis. The fact that other parts of the world are using this instrument to acquire power in the field of foreign policy is an important indication that we as Europeans and as citizens of our Member States have only one chance if this is to lead to a common foreign and security policy, together with a joint economic and monetary policy. This is the only opportunity for the Member States to ensure that they have a future in the world by means of sharing and pooling."@en1
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