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A Conversation with Federica Mogherini
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AtlanticCouncil
Streamed live on 10 Feb 2017
https://www.youtube.com/user/AtlanticCouncil/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid
Mogherini: We Need to Change the ‘Institutional Structure’ of EU Defense and Security
EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini, June 28, 2016 (photo: European External Action Service
I see the focus on implementation on four specific areas. I will start with the one that might not be the most evident one in the Global Strategy, but I think is the one that has the most clear and evident window of political opportunity in this moment, especially with Member States but also with the Commission and with our citizens which is the work we can do on implementation of security and defence. The Strategy has already opened a debate, you may have noticed this. In the debate over the summer a certain number of Ministers, Prime Ministers, Heads of State, Commissioners, whatever, have come up with ideas on how to build our European Security Union, how to make sure that our defence at a European Union’s level uses all the potential it can have. And I think this is a very positive sign because if we do not have the ownership, the buy-in, the commitment of all stakeholders here starting from the Member States, this will not be a possible way to go.
So, I think that we have the political space today to do things that were not really do-able in the previous years. My intention is to present, before the end of the year, an ambitious, the highest possible ambitious level, an ambitious implementation plan on security and defence, including a few clear elements. One: how we make full use of the existing Treaties, how to make use of the huge potential of what we have already, from an institutional point of view. The Strategy mentions the Battlegroups, and the need toremove the obstacles to their deployment. But we have also other issues like structured cooperation, or how to best implement an article we use already, article 42.7 or an article we have never used, article 44. It is not an exhaustive list: it is just to give you a flavour of what I intend to put on the table.
Second element on security and defence: change our institutional structure because we could have the need also to be imaginative. Because our recent experience shows very clearly, and some of you have experienced it directly, how crucial the cooperation between the civilian and military personnel is. We have seen it in the missions in the Sahel, we have seen it in Operation Sophia, we have seen it in many different fields, we see it in Libya in a very clear way. A more effective joint civilian-military planning might need a specific structure and we will look into this kind of institutional innovation as well.
Third element on the chapter of security and defence: capabilities because we will have to speed up the process towards a truly European defence industry, identifying key strategic activities supported by the European Defence Action Plan. I think that we could look at incentives in that field as well.
Another element, last but not least: working with partners in the field of security and defence. NATO is the most obvious one. We have signed with NATO a joint declaration at the margins of the Warsaw Summit, it is now for implementation. I intend to present proposals for implementation of that Joint Declaration in the coming couple of months. But it is not only NATO because with the United Nations for instance we work a lot on security and defence and many of you see it every day on the ground. This is not in contradiction; working with partners is not in contradiction with strengthening our capacities to work autonomously on security and defence because actually in the world of today the only way in which we, Europeans, can take responsibility for our collective security, and doing our part, our share of responsibility, is through cooperation inside the European Union.
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016Mogherini Dismisses Likelihood of European Army, But Seeks Deployment of EU Battlegroups
BY FEDERICA MOGHERINI, EUROPEAN EXTERNAL ACTION SERVICE
EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini, Sept. 3, 2016 (photo: Halime Sarrag/EU2016 Slovakia)
Today there was a general agreement, actually a unanimous agreement, on the fact that not only that the Global Strategy is excellent, but also the plans for implementation are what we need now. So I will provide a clear roadmap by the end of next week on different steps of implementation. I aim at having the first operational results already by Spring next year, when we will have the first report on the implementation of the Strategy. This will include all chapters of our action in the world, meaning in particular the work on conflicts and crises from the very beginning to the very end: prevention, crisis management, crisis solution but also follow-up to crisis and conflicts and building resilience in societies and states around us, in the area around Europe both to the East and to the South but also in faraway places like in Africa and Afghanistan where the European Union is working a lot with our partners to increase the resilience of populations and institutions.
A very important part of our implementation of the Strategy will deal with the nexus between our internal policies and our external work. This is perfectly understandable when we talk about preventing radicalisation and terrorism or dealing with counterterrorism, or migration. A perfect example of what we intend to do is the work we established on migration where we work at the same time on internal measures but also on external long-term investments in countries of origin and transit and anti-smuggling operation.
This is going to be a comprehensive approach but I guess you might be more interested in one part of what I presented today to the Foreign Ministers, which are the plans for the implementation of the part of the Global Strategy that relate to the European defence and security. I presented them a rather detailed menu of options we have within the existing Treaties of the European Union of all possible actions that the European Union can take to increase the level of European defence and security policies. This includes issues that we will put on the table, also of Defence Ministers obviously and also Heads of State and Government. I don’t exclude that at the Bratislava Summit in mid-September the Heads of State and Government might be interested in hearing what we discussed today with the Foreign Ministers when it comes to increasing the Europe of Defence. This includes the definition of our level of ambition, work on capabilities on the military side but also on the civilian side, and this includes also the full use of all our tools already foreseen by the Treaty, including the use of battlegroups for instance or the use of structured cooperation.
I have to say that around the table there was also unanimity on the fact that – including on the issue of defence – the implementation plan I am proposing is going exactly in the direction that we need and I will proceed with this work so that we respond to the needs of our citizens, but also of our partners in the world, that we manage to have a more effective European defence and security.
There were also ideas that I proposed and that I will also elaborate further of using the European Semester to encourage a higher degree of cooperation in the field of security and defence. The idea on which I will work now is to produce an implementation plan on European defence by the end of this year, in parallel with the work that Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowskais doing on the European Defence Action Plan and in parallel with the proposals I will present on the implementation of the Joint Declaration we signed with NATO at the Warsaw Summit in July. This could constitute a package on the European Defence and Security to be ready by the end of this year with again not reflections or visions, but concrete proposals for actions.
I will stop here. It was not so brief and I will take a couple of questions….
Q. On global strategy and defence, was there any discussion on the idea of having a European army?
When it comes to the Global Strategy, what we discussed today are very concrete steps to increase the capacity of the European Union to be active and operational in the field of defence and security. As you know, we already have many missions and operations but there is much, much more that we can do at the service of peace and security. The European Union has its own way of interpreting security and defence, which is very much a link between the civil and the military aspects, which is unique and very precious at these times, and we discussed these concrete steps.
We, I think, all agree among the Foreign Ministers that the European Army is not something that is going to happen any time soon, but what can happen very soon, if the Member States are committed, is to advance in the field of European defence with very concrete measures, and this is what I put on the table today. The important thing, I believe, is that all the Ministers, and I repeat all the Ministers, appreciated the plans for implementation and are ready to work constructively, and in a committed way to advance in this respect. So, I see a very clear window of political opportunity from now to next spring to make this file advance.
There were always talks about the Europe of defence and little deliverablesin the past years; I think that now it is the time for real stuff and that is why I put on the table these proposals. And again, this is only the beginning; it could be that you will see – even here in Bratislava – very soon some further elements on this.
Excerpts from remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the press point after the first day of the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Bratislava.
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