4th Annual Conference with the Heads of EU Delegations

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me warmly welcome you to this conference between Members of the European Parliament and Heads of EU Delegations. I am proud that the European Parliament is hosting this conference for the fourth time. In the past, this meeting has proved to be a useful platform for deepening the cooperation between the European Parliament and the External Action Service, but also for discussing key foreign policy issues.

I am pleased to be accompanied Mr Panzeri, Chairman of the Conference of Delegation Chairs, among other colleagues. I would also like to thank Mr Alain Le Roy, Secretary General of the EEAS, for joining us today.

Ladies and gentlemen,

This fall will be busy and for sure challenging for all of us. A number of national elections are foreseen, China's economic situation is worrying leaders around the globe, the Ukraine crisis is still simmering and the terrorist threat posed by the so-called Islamic State remains a grave concern. But clearly topping the political agenda is the refugee crisis.

Almost daily, we learn about the deaths of more refugees. 70 people suffocated in a lorry. A 17 year old killed in a shoot-out with human traffickers. 600 drowned in the Mediterranean within three days. While these tragedies are occurring European governments are building fences to keep migrants out or refuse to host refugees fleeing from wars, European leaders call for the reinstatement of border controls or haggle over quotas at all-night summits. And at the same time more people set out to seek refuge in Europe.

These days, it is difficult not to be ashamed of our inability to deal with this crisis in a humane and effective way. Even more so, as we are confronted with a crisis foretold. We failed to get on top of the issue on time. Now, the crisis has broken. Today more people are fleeing from violent conflicts than at any other time since the Second World War: More than fifty million people.

Lack of action is costing lives, violating fundamental rights and our values, wasting opportunities of integration, putting at risk our freedom of movement, providing fertile ground for extremist ideologies and damaging our reputation.

While the responsibility for migration lies with the member states, I believe the EU institutions have an important role to play as mediator. Because we are the voice of solidarity.

And it is high time, that we put the common good before national egotisms.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is also high time that we discuss problems openly and honestly.

Honesty also demands that we look at the root causes of migration. Conflicts in our immediate neighbourhood are unleashing waves of migrants, foremost in Syria and the barbaric violence of the so-called Islamic State - but we are also looking at failures of our foreign policy. I am convinced that we can and must do better in our foreign policy.

As wars are being waged in our immediate neighbourhood, states are collapsing and civilians are fleeing as best they can from the most terrible atrocities, we are faced with highly dangerous conflicts and the EU is doing a lot to provide humanitarian aid and fund aid organisations. It is right that we should be doing this, and it is essential that we should continue to do so. Our international role however should be a more ambitious one.

We Europeans are faced with a choice: either we stand together and act together as Europeans - and if we have the political will the Lisbon Treaty provides us with the tools to do this - or we will lose influence on global affairs. Our citizens have made their choice: they are looking to the EU to play a more active role on the international stage. If we want to be a credible global player, we must put national sensibilities to one side and finally reach agreement on a genuine common foreign and security policy, also incorporating a common energy and defence policy, which reflects the new global and regional realities. We have to finally step up to the challenges around us.

Just look at Libya: We have to shoulder our part of the responsibility when it comes to Libya. We Europeans were not able to coordinate and deploy a comprehensive European strategy tackling both the political and the security challenges when it was still possible. And now we struggle to deal with the governance vacuum and its humanitarian and security consequences.

Let's not repeat the same errors and lack of vision with Tunisia! This young democracy! The terrorist attacks at the Bardo museum and in Sousse shocked us profoundly. These were attacks aimed at the heart of democracy. As you know, democracy-building is one of the most important pillars of EU foreign policy and has become a focus of the European Parliament's external activities. And we count on the support of EU delegations in priority countries to be very actively engaged to help us implement the Comprehensive Democracy Support Approach.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We cannot turn our back on our neighbours. On the contrary, we must step up our efforts. And we must reshape our European Neighbourhood Policy to better respond to rapid developments both to our East and to our South. In our resolution of 9 July 2015 Parliament has stressed a number of key principles for reshaping it: the ENP needs a new, more open approach, based on differentiation, ownership, focus, flexibility and the "more for more" principle.

We want to offer new, closer cooperation with the EU to those countries which have achieved progress in their reform process. A lot also depends on our partners themselves. They are called upon to root out systemic corruption and oligarchies and to establish the rule of law. Time and again, the European Union has proven that it can be of major assistance to our neighbours, if we use our transformative power to encourage modernisation and reform. Let's build on our past successes.

Ladies and gentlemen, the intensifying conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the ongoing humanitarian crisis there however remain a very serious concern.

Since the beginning of the conflict, and after the unlawful annexation of Crimea by Russia, the European Union has worked towards a peaceful solution of this conflict. Because we know that the only viable solution is a political solution. As Russia and the EU are neighbours we must find a modus vivendi. Even if it is frustrating and takes a lot of patience, we should certainly continue our twin track approach: maintaining the critical pressure through the sanctions regime on Russia while at the same time enhancing support for Ukraine's internal reforms.

Yet, there is also some good news: so far, we Europeans have resisted all attempts at dividing us. If we stick together as Europeans, there is so much we can achieve. Over the past few months we have achieved an unprecedented degree of common purpose in our foreign policy. National governments have put aside their individual interests, selfishness and vanity and agreed on a common European approach. So far no Member State has budged from that common approach. That is a success in itself. If everyone pursues their own interests, we are weak; if we stand united, however, we are strong.

And there is another encouraging example of what we Europeans can achieve when we stick together and work together: the agreement reached on 14 July with Iran. I cannot but congratulate High Representative Mogherini on this break-through. This agreement is a major success for EU diplomacy and our soft power approach. I wish High Representative Mogherini the same success with her initiative to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiation table. Re-launching the peace process is a matter of urgency.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me say some words on the importance of incorporating our development and trade policies into a comprehensive foreign policy framework. We are about to decide on new Sustainable Development Goals in New York by the end of this month. And we are in the middle of some big bilateral trade negotiations, without forgetting about the multilateral WTO agenda. Finally, we must understand that all of our policies are multi-dimensional. Development policy is also about preventing terrorism. And trade policy is not only about increasing global income, but also about setting global labour and environmental standards, as the Parliament recently expressed in its resolution on TTIP. More strategic coherence would indeed be a boost for our foreign policy.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As I said at the beginning: we Europeans are faced with a choice: either we stand together and act together as Europeans or we will lose influence on global affairs. If we Europeans want to be a credible global actor we need a credible External Action Service.

As you know, the European Parliament has always whole-heartedly supported the External Action Service and we will continue to do so.

Firstly, because we have immensely benefitted from the assistance of the EU Delegations. We want the European Parliament and the External Action Service to work together even more closely. The guidelines for our future cooperation are being fine-tuned at the moment and will soon be made public.

Secondly, and more importantly, we support the External Action Service because the credibility of the European Union as a global player depends on both the unity and the strength of our common foreign policy but also our common security and defence policy and on the quality of our external representation. Excellencies, you are the faces of the European Union in your host countries.

We want to see you succeed, and the Parliament is more than willing to contribute to the success of European foreign policy, with the responsibilities that emanate from the Treaty, but also with our increasingly effective parliamentary diplomacy. I believe that our inter-parliamentary delegations are a very useful instrument of parliamentary scrutiny and provide added value to deliberations in the relevant committees. Therefore, I would like to thank you again, also on behalf of all delegation chairmen, for the very valuable assistance we always receive on the spot. I am aware that we are currently looking at ways of further improving our cooperation.

I am also pleased to see that in recent years the European Parliament has moved to a more coordinated and structured role of parliamentary mediation. The Cox-Kwasniewski mission, Mediation in FYROM and the support of imprisoned Sakharov Prize nominee Leyla Yunus are excellent examples.

Last but not least, I would like to ask you to be personally available and your mission always open to our Sakharov Laureates. We have a common responsibility to continue to provide them with all the support and protection they need to continue their struggle for universal values we all share.

Thank you for your attention.