Compte rendu in extenso des débats

Lundi 17 avril 2023 - Strasbourg

20. Mise en œuvre de la PSDC civile et d’autres formes d’assistance de l’Union dans le domaine de la sécurité civile (brève présentation)

  President. – The next item is a short presentation of the report by Alviina Alametsä on the implementation of civilian CSDP and other EU civilian security assistance (2022/2196(INI)) (A9-0091/2023).

  Alviina Alametsä, rapporteur. – Mr President, dear colleagues, war has cast a huge shadow over our minds during the past year. We must remember that peace is not just the absence of war, and we have to work for peace. Peaceful society is where people can resolve their differences without violence and work together for a better life, community and society. This must be the goal of the EU civilian crisis management.

I am very pleased today to present you the report of the implementation of the civilian CSDP. At the moment, it is very fitting, as the Council is due to adopt the civilian compact in May, setting up the goals and ambition for the EU civilian crisis management for the years to come. I truly hope that this report will contribute to that discussion, and I thank the colleagues for working together on that with me.

While the changing security environment has caused the EU to strengthen its military instruments in Europe and abroad, and justly so, it is also crucial that the EU sends the message that we also want to want to boost our non-military security support and promote sustainable peace in our neighbourhood and globally. The changing security environment has increased the need for civilian crisis management and what is required of the missions. Unfortunately, the resources of these missions haven’t grown in that proportion. The adoption of the first civilian compact was an important step in 2018, but several of its commitments are yet to be fulfilled after so many years.

This report makes concrete proposals on how to make the civilian CSDP stronger and fit for an uncertain future. There is no doubt that supporting the security sector, rule of law and policing remain at the heart of our civilian crisis management. We must improve considerably at assessing how effective our missions are and what impact they are creating.

The EU missions are ultimately about the security and safety of citizens and about the justice system and the rule of law. How does it work for them? Does a woman abused by her husband feel safe to go and inform the police about it? Can she trust that justice system will protect her and help her? Will there be educated and informed people available in that system to help her seek justice, for example?

To increase our effectiveness, civilian measures must be truly integrated into the EU’s response to crises and missions, and those must be better equipped with new capabilities such as cyber security. It is also important that all missions promote equality and gender equality, both in the higher inclusion of women in mission personnel, but also by effectively integrating gender perspective into missions, mandates and activities.

Finally, civilian crisis management and CSDP is a unique tool in the EU’s toolbox to promote peace and security in our partner countries. There is immense potential in civilian crisis management, but to generate positive change, we need to invest in it. We need to actually promote peace and security and put both our minds and our resources and all of our willpower into that.

So let’s send a strong message to the Member States together: it is time to set a step up our ambition. I very much thank you, all of the colleagues who have been working with me on this report to make all of these concrete proposals. I hope they will genuinely change how we do things.

Catch-the-eye procedure

  Alexander Bernhuber (PPE). – Herr Präsident, sehr geehrte Frau Kommissarin, geschätzte Berichterstatterin! Herzlichen Dank für die eingebrachten Punkte zu einer Gemeinsamen Sicherheitspolitik. Die Punkte, die Sie angesprochen haben, zeigen ja – angesichts der täglichen Nachrichten, die wir hören –, wie wichtig es ist, dass wir dieses Thema besprechen und dass wir wirklich auch intensiv diskutieren.

Die Umweltbedingungen haben sich geändert. Wir sehen es mit dem Krieg in der Ukraine, wie wichtig es ist, dass hier wirklich diese Schritte des Datenaustausches usw. ausgebaut werden, dass wir hier nachhaltig wirklich gemeinsam daran arbeiten. Es gibt sehr viele Ressourcen, die hier schon zur Verfügung stehen, und da finde ich es auch sehr wichtig, dass wir hier wirklich gegenseitig, also die Institutionen, die Mitgliedstaaten – und natürlich auch die Hilfe für Drittstaaten –, dass hier besser gemeinsam zusammengearbeitet wird, damit wir diese wichtigen Themen gemeinsam besprechen können.

  Clare Daly (The Left). – Mr President, supposedly, the goals of our civilian security and defence policy include conflict resolution, crisis management, disarmament, all very essential to the security of people and communities internationally. But of course, that’s not actually what we’re doing at all. We’re using these issues as a cover to advance our interests in these areas. There are, of course, positive elements in the report, but unfortunately they’re swamped by talks about geopolitical conflict with our “strategic competitors”. They double down on the failure of the security-sector-reform model, which has led to disasters in Mali and the broader Sahel. We talk about migration of human beings as a security threat. We call for increases in defence spending, blurring the boundaries between civilian and military policy, calling for closer cooperation with NATO and using development aid as leverage over other countries. We reject all of this, civilian missions shouldn’t be about our advancement, they should be about maintaining international peace and security and addressing the needs of affected populations.

  Mick Wallace (The Left). – Mr President, the idea of civilian CSDP should be a positive endeavour. Conflict resolution, disarmament and crisis management are deeply important today, yet the report before us is committed to a militaristic framing of these practices that undermines the pretence that there is very much strictly civilian about civilian CSDP at all.

The report stresses that the increased presence of strategic competitors in operational theatres necessitates more effective civilian CSDP, better able to adapt to new challenges. The report characterises migration as a security threat, calls for an increase in defence spending, civil-military cooperation and closer cooperation with NATO. God help us.

The EU maintains an economic stranglehold and systems of exploitation over many of the places where these missions are active. As long as we ignore the structural barriers to peace, view all problems through a militaristic lens and learn no lessons from the many disastrous wars we’ve taken part in, we’ll do very little to advance peace or stability in these regions surrounding Europe.

(End of catch-the-eye procedure)

  Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the Commission. – Mr President, on behalf of the Commission and the High Representative Borrell, I would like to thank the rapporteur Ms Alametsä and the MEPs who have contributed to the EP report on the implementation of civilian Common Security and Defence Policy and other EU civilian security assistance.

Today’s debate provides a timely opportunity to summarise the results achieved under the first civilian Common Security and Defence Policy compact and to focus on the future developments, including the next compact.

Under the first civilian CSDP compact, solid progress has been made both at Member State level and within EU services and civilian CSDP missions. However, as its implementation will soon come to an end, on 30 June, challenges remain. Our 12 CSDP missions are deployed in some of the most challenging environments. With around 2 200 women and men serving under the EU flag, the civilian missions are our trademark instrument in our response to external conflicts and crises, ultimately contributing to our own security at home.

They have proven capable of swiftly and effectively addressing the most pressing foreign policy challenges and meeting partners’ needs. Most recent examples are the swift adaptation of the mandate of the EU advisory mission in Ukraine after Russia’s brutal invasion, or the rapid establishment of a new civilian mission in Armenia.

With the launching soon of the 30th civilian mission to Moldova, civilian CSDP has also proved to be adaptable to new and emerging security challenges, including hybrid threats and foreign interference and information manipulation: key threats you have also identified in your report.

All this shows that the demand for civilian crisis management is growing, and as the security environment around Europe and beyond deteriorates, there is no time to rest on our laurels.

Dear Members, your report also points out some of the shortcomings of civilian CSDP, including lack of sufficient resources and funding. Member States’ staff contributions have witnessed limited change, with only ten Member States providing 78% of seconded personnel, and the budget has remained tight despite a growing number of tasks and missions on the ground.

This brings me to the question: what next? In light of changing security threats, the strategic compass calls upon us to adopt a second civilian CSDP compact by mid-2023 – the middle of this year – to advance towards a more effective and capable civilian CSDP. Today you call for more resources, funding, political visibility and strategic vision for civilian CSDP missions, and we share this perspective. Civilian CSDP missions are the union’s flagship crisis management tool under the political ownership of Member States and financed through our CFSP budget. The missions have to effectively respond to our partners’ needs, ensure local ownership and make a real change on the ground. The second civilian CSDP compact provides us with an opportunity to renew commitments and assign concrete timelines and actions to them.

There are multiple work strands where we need to speed up our efforts. Let me just mention a few of them. First, we need to address the capability gap. We have to provide our missions with the skilful resources they need to deliver on their tasks. This is essential to translate our political ambitions into concrete deliverables. Second, we need an effective evaluation mechanism to measure the impact of our civilian mission. This will allow us to assess the relevance of their mandates. The third: our response needs to be agile. Our ambition remains to be able to deploy 200 experts in 30 days.

To conclude, allow me to take the opportunity to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to those women and men serving in our 12 civilian CSDP missions in often challenging and non-permissive environments. Let me once again thank you for your contribution and your engagement in civilian CSDP. We encourage you to stay involved over the implementation of the next civilian CSDP compact.

  President. – The item is closed. The vote will be held tomorrow.