Robert Schuman told us, from the beginning of the EU: « There is no sustainable economical integration without true political integration ».
We have just experienced this with the sovereign debts crisis which was mainly due to the lack of political integration, the absence of common budgetary and economic policies, which are the only guarantee of the strength and the sustainability of the Euro.
The multipolar world, contrary what we usually think in Europe, is not a multilateral world. It is a competitive world, with a great deal of unilateralist behaviour on the part of the actors, a world of Continent-States which continue to act as Nation-States, using the same tools: force and influence.
The European Union, the first GDP in the world, must accept to define its own interests better, to defend them without hesitation, to promote them and to use the traditional tools of international relations.
It also has to revise its exclusive belief in its Soft-Power. This is not sufficient in the new world. For example: The Enlargement Policy cannot be the sole Foreign Policy at our borders. We need a true Neighbourhood Policy, with new concepts of Partnership, agreements, treaties and more funds. We cannot be a global payer, we must become a global player.
We do not need a common Foreign Policy. We need a strong common Foreign Policy.
The EU is a peace-loving Union. It should not be a non-military Power. We do not have any choice if we want to count on the international scene.
So, the new European External Service is a good step toward a better promotion of our common interests. But are we sure we share all the constraint that it means? Are we sure we are ready to make all the necessary effort to fight terrorism, to ensure European security to face all the new threats (cyber security, human and drug trafficking)? Europe must think itself as an emerging Superpower, a pacific one, but a Power under construction. Europe needs true mobilization in global security matters. And sometimes we do not seem ready and nor do we seem to stand united in the face of these new requirements. You can be sure that this kind of division, as well as those regarding – for example- the independence of the Kosovo, is a true stab in the back of the Common Foreign Policy. We have no interest to raise the stakes on every European people for the terrorists. We have to face the challenges they throw down at us together.
The new EU delegations in the third countries should not only be representative offices. They have to be proactive, imaginative and dynamic to promote a stronger Europe and to defend our long term interests at last.
At this point I just want to mention that – for example – we need to complete the Copenhagen criteria with the obligation for every candidate country to fall in line with the Common Defence and Foreign Policy. This is not right now the case.
Indeed. Since the launch of the European Union, we have drifted along the course of the European integration. Comfortable with the umbrella of our military alliances, the Member States have estimated for too long that they can benefit from economic integration without true political union, without true European Defence and the necessary funding that it means from a military point of view to protect and promote their model and their standard of living. The time has come, things cannot continue this way.
Either we decide to launch new common initiatives both internal and external, for example, to draw up a new common Defence Policy, otherwise some of the Member States will decide on their own and assume this responsibility alone. It is urgent to make new progress in the military field. Not to use it as a common tool of our Foreign Policy, but to show our will to prevent any offence against our interests and to demonstrate our capacity to be united, that means to share our political sovereignties.
You can be certain that our prosperity, our security and our independence depends on this.
