Four countries for a stronger Europe in the world

(BRUSSELS2) The Polish (Radoslaw Sikorski), Swedish (Carl Bildt), Italian foreign ministers and the Spanish secretary of state (Gonzalo De Benito) took advantage of the last council of foreign ministers on Monday (23 July), to lay down the terms of a global European approach to external relations: a "European Global Strategy" (EGS) as they define it. These four countries want to pool the work of some of their national think tanks. These should provide a report on the possibility of an EGS by May 2013.

The objective of this initiative is to remedy a lack of reflection for R. Sikorski “ We too rarely think and act strategically. Such a tool will ultimately consist in promoting European interests in a common way” he explains. "There has already been a European Security Strategy since 2008, but the latter tends to always focus on the 'threats".  “Tony Blair said he wanted Europe to be a Super Power but not a Super State” continues R. Sikorski. “We gave up our sovereignty in the commercial domain. The result has been to see that for some of us it has been good business. If it works in this particular area of ​​commerce, then we should apply this economy of scale to other areas, including defense. Energy policy, too, should be factored into external affairs decisions, he said.

Between soft and hard power, for the Polish minister, a few elements are still missing. " Cathy would be more effective if she could speak softly of hard forces. But she needs tools for it ". But the notion of security is not at the forefront of the concerns of the signatories. “What transforms the world today is the economy explains Carl Bildt. And in this area, Europe is a hard power. With an unknown: the financial crisis. " There is a world after the economic crisis, there will be a world after 2014”.