What does the letter of the Five say? (shift)

(BRUSSELS2, exclusive) Five Foreign Ministers therefore signed in Sopot, on Friday (September 2), a missive intended to press for a strengthening of the European security and defense policy. This letter - the content of which has not been officially released - resumes, according to our information, the various positions held, on the one hand, by the Weimar triangle (Poland, Germany, France), on the other hand, by Italy and Spain, in two missives sent to the High Representative, one in December 2010, the other in May 2011.

A matter of urgency...

The Five wanted to underline their desire to go further than today and support any work that the High Representative of the EU could do on the subject. " We remain committed more than ever to the development of effective and robust instruments for CSDP “underline the signatories. The discussion held in July 2011 “ proved that there was strong political support to continue the work on the basis of your report” (the High Representative's report presented to the May Council). It is therefore now necessary to transform the test by examining all options, legal and institutional, including permanent structured cooperation, to help develop the missing CSDP capacities, in particular a European leadership and planning HQ ". Basically, "doing better with less", the leitmotif of the High Representative of the EU, is a fine principle, but it still needs to be implemented. And the question of HQ is a question " emergency " underline the 5 who put themselves " available from the High Representative to support her work on these issues.

... and a request for result by the end of 2011

The Five are waiting for proposals " concrete to one of the next Foreign Affairs Council meetings, starting this autumn, in order to be able to reach a specific result by the end of the year. A deadline which corresponds to a commitment made by the 27 during their ministerial meeting in January which took due note of the letter from the "Weimar" (*).

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

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