Mogherini told how to implement “global strategy of European Union”
ROME, 25 June — RIA Novosti, Alexander Logunov. The cooperation of the countries of the European Union in the sphere of defense is not the aim of its militarization, and allow him to take a leading position from the point of view of industry and technology, said the head of EU diplomacy Federica Mogherini.
“A year ago, after the referendum on the British exit from the EU, many predicted that this will be the beginning of the end. This did not happen, moreover, now the European Union became even stronger. We realized that we risk losing not only 70 years of peace, but also law and the economy, which has moved to growth. Together we found a way to restart our Union,” she wrote in the newspaper La Repubblica.
According to the Supreme Commissioner of the EU, security in the face of terrorist threats and international tensions, in addition to economic growth, one of the main needs of the Europeans. She believes Mogherini, depends on the capabilities to ensure peace and stability beyond Europe’s borders not only through diplomacy but also through the strengthening of defense.
Mogherini noted that exactly a year ago, the global strategy of the Union for foreign Affairs and security policy have outlined the way to restart the global role of the EU and allowed him to make more steps forward than over the past few decades. “Soldiers with the European flag on the uniform every day are detained in the Mediterranean sea on carriers of illegal immigrants, save lives, teach the armed forces of our partner countries to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia,” reads its article.
“A few weeks ago we presented in Brussels, the center of planning and control for all military missions for training (military overseas — ed), overcoming the old attempts to resist the creation of a unified military headquarters. At the same time, we launched a defense Fund the EU budget is scheduled to be at the level of 5.5 billion euros per year… we are not Talking about the militarization of the EU, and to streamline costs by economizing on scale. Because the best investments are those that are made together,” said Mogherini.
On Thursday, EU leaders launched the permanent cooperation of EU countries in the defense sector, three months will be declared the “common list of criteria and obligations, as well as specific projects in the field of (developing) capacity to implement this partnership.”
As stated in the outcome document of the EU summit on defence, we are talking about the criteria stipulated by the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union. According to him, the Protocol on continuous cooperation in the field of defense needs to fix certain criteria and obligations in the field of military capabilities. Countries wishing to participate in such cooperation should meet these criteria and accept these commitments. If the conditions are met, these countries notify their intention, and within three months after this notification, the EU Council establishes the cooperation and commits the list of the countries-participants.
Also at the summit, the EU agreed on a permanent mechanism to Finance the deployment of “combat groups” of EU rapid reaction units, which have never been used. The so-called “battle groups” are the rapid reaction forces of the EU and represent the military units of battalion level strength of about 1.5 thousand soldiers. The level of full operational readiness “battle groups” reached in early 2007. As stated earlier Mogherini, the tool since the establishment in 2004 have not been involved in the framework of the European policy of security and defense because of the lack of political will. In her opinion, the involvement of “battle groups” may be a contribution not only to European security, but in the security of some neighbouring countries.