Can I ask you a question? She asks Claudio Graziano.
Do we really want to depend on someone?
a rhetorical question?
Sure.
In fact, the general, president of the Military Committee of the European Union since November 2018, goes on without waiting for the obvious answer: Here is explained what strategic autonomy for Europe is: the opposite of dependence autonomy. A point caught just a few weeks ago by Prime Minister Draghi. As for the production of vaccines, autonomy is also needed in defense. That is, the ability to act alone if necessary, with partners if possible. Within the framework of the ambition that Europe has given itself.
An example?
Well, the Irini operation in the central Mediterranean: exclusively European, launched last year for the arms embargo on Libya.
But the Born at sunset?
No. It continues to be the pillar of collective defense. But after 2011 in Libya he decided to participate less in security and peace operations. This left a gap. But there is no opposition, on the contrary: a stronger Europe makes NATO stronger.
What is technological sovereignty today?
Once an ambition has been established, methods and financial instruments are sought: fundamental in order not to be crushed by technological developments in the US and China. Technological primacy also means geopolitical and military hegemony.
What has Covid changed?
Everything, and for the worse. We were already very concerned about Turkey’s interventions in Syria and Libya and about Russian activity. Covid has aggravated traditional threats with a new cyber threat: we are increasingly dependent on electromagnetic spaces to communicate.
Vaccines are a geopolitical weapon of Russia and China.
It cannot be a race between states, at most a race to save lives. But it is true that the production and the vaccination campaign are softpower, therefore, the resilience of international organizations becomes security.
To assess security and common risks, the Commission launched the Strategic Compass. How does it work?
We start from the shared analysis of the threat, gathering the contributions of all, without in order of priority, which will require subsequent developments. It is important that individual states contribute.
But the 27 don’t all look the same way even in alliances… Does the compass need a political needle?
It takes effort to mediate on perceptions. There is a perception of threat from the South, from Libya, but also from the East and the Southeast, we have just returned from Bulgaria, there is a strong perception of threat from the Black Sea. Obviously the political leadership is missing, Prodi said.
Could the Compass make Europe more united?
It is the goal to which I propose to contribute. Never before has there been no military solution to crises but there is no solution to crises without also military capability, at least at the deterrence level.
What changes for us with Biden’s America?
The new administration has given important signs of a willingness to collaborate and multilateralism. Alliances must be reinvigorated when Turkey and Russia act outside the rules of international relations.
How much do we care about Russian intelligence?
Russia is one of the hybrid threats to the EU, there are sanctions for what they have done in Ukraine. intervened in Syria with hybrid systems. It deployed to Libya. For them, it is essential to weaken the cohesion of the great alliances. Also from the point of view of intelligence.
Erdogan offended von der Leyen and reached the diplomatic crisis with Draghi… ally in NATO, enemy of Europe: what really?
Turkey has made pragmatism one modus operandi. In other contexts it stands outside rules and international relations, an area in which we hope to bring it back. Certainly diplomacy made up of symbolic moments. So I have a hard time believing that the story you referred to is due only to a protocol error and does not represent a message.
From Erdogan to the Libyans, as the EU we apply the bouncer strategy to keep migrants away. Meanwhile drowning in the sea …
Let’s talk about flow management. Terrorism, failed states and uncontrolled immigration are a triangle of instability. Respect for human rights is a non-negotiable value for us. Libya is the bottleneck of flows that come up from Africa, for now there is only Irini against arms trafficking, even if the training of the coast guard on our standards of rights can be kept among its tasks. The underlying problem is war, once peace has been restored we will intervene directly at the root on the problem of migrants.
Are we returning Afghanistan to the Taliban?
The international community must not leave the country. The risk of the Taliban returning exists. Like what the void is filled by China, Russia, Iran.
European strategic autonomy against democracies?
No, not it. Some actors have begun to decline the hybrid war also against the European institutions, combining operations in the cybernetic and in the cognitive domain. The Union must be able to defend itself: alone, even better if in the context of historical alliances. What cannot happen is that the security of our free institutions depends on others.
Could the EU exist without a common army?
Defense is a national prerogative, but in less than 70 years we have gone from waging war with each other to employing men under the command of foreign officers with the European flag. We cannot fail on the European path, it would mean returning to the trenches of the First World War. The common army is a dream: I will not see it. But not even Rome was built in a day.
April 24, 2021 (change April 24, 2021 | 22:36)
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