Charles Tannock, on behalf of the ecr group
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| Charles Tannock, on behalf of the ECR Group. – Mr President, on all sides of the EU’s external borders, we are now faced with political and security instability. Events in Libya have seen large tracks of its territory fall into the hands of armed militias. The illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 has sparked fresh tensions with the European Union, whilst war still goes on, sadly, in the east of Ukraine.
President Erdoğan of Turkey, meanwhile, presses ahead with his reorientation of Turkey in a Middle Eastern direction, seeking a dominant role in regional politics and hollowing out democratic institutions at home. Furthermore, despite continued progress and improvements in the Western Balkans, Euro-Atlanticist integration of that region still remains challenging. This is set against a wider backdrop of increased global threats such as terrorism, climate change, migratory fluxes, cyber attacks and a less engaged and isolationist America following the election of President Trump. It is no surprise, therefore, that we see a renewed focus in demand by Member States to work together more closely at EU level in the realms of foreign security and defence policies. The 2016 global strategy set out a bold vision for the EU in this regard, and a concrete example seen this year in the form of permanent structured cooperation on security and defence (PESCO), with 25 out of 27 EU Member States now having joined, and the launch of a European defence fund, prove that this is now a reality. Despite Brexit, it is clear that the United Kingdom, my country, understands the need and has a desire to remain fully engaged with the EU in these areas, and will remain a member of NATO and seek a strong NATO common security and defence policy (CSDP) cooperation. I sincerely hope that phase two of the negotiations between the EU 27 and the UK will deliver such a deep and special partnership. Directory: sed sed -> Tourist Areas Haiti, another discovery sed -> Headmaster’s Prize Giving Speech Summer Term 2015 sed -> Early searches for new physics with the atlas detector E. V. Sedykh sed -> National fsa training Module 18: Impact assessment studies sed -> Audition pack sed -> Lovers: Birth of Lilith sed -> Wakko’S 50 state capitals (lyrics) sed -> Acknowledgements Download 4.71 Kb. Share with your friends:
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