Today High Representative Mogherini presents the EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy - more than a decade after the 2003 European Security Strategy. Member of European Parliament (ALDE/D66) Marietje Schaake responds: “The EU needs a global strategy, and more importantly, should act as a global player to meet the challenges of our time. From the war in Syria to countering terrorism effectively, from an ambitious human rights policy to seeking rules based trade, the EU can and should deliver more in the interest of sustaining the quality of life of people in Europe and elsewhere. EU Member States have failed to effectively cooperate on security and defense for years. In light of the amount of threats in Europe´s immediate neighbourhood, capacity must not only be increased but cooperation must lead to smarter and more effective defense. As the country with the EU´s second largest army is on its way out this question answered even more urgently.”
Migration”Recently there has been a lot of concern about migration and asylum seekers coming to the EU. As a result EU foreign policy risks being instrumentalised to ´manage migration´. The so called deal between the EU and Turkey is one example of that, but the suggestion was made to use trade, development and other foreign policy instruments merely to stop migration. I am glad the Global Strategy does not go in this direction but rather looks at the broader goals of a comprehensive set of foreign policy instruments. We have always believed a values based foreign policy is in the interest of Europe and leads to the best long term results.”
New threats”New challenges to security as a result of digitization are an area where the EU should aspire to lead in ensuring not only security, but a rights based approach to it. The Global Strategy fails to articulate clear European foreign policy goals in which the protection of digital freedoms and achieving real cyber-security go hand in hand. Key questions such as whether the EU will challenge forced data localization remain ambivalent, while this should be clearly rejected in the interest of keeping the internet open. If we want a future proof strategy, more leadership and clear ambitions should be articulated with regard to cybersecurity and internet governance.”
Schaake published an article in the Journal of Cyber Policy on the need for a values-based European foreign policy to cybersecurity. Schaake is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. She also served as Commissioner on the Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) which released a comprehensive report last week with concrete recommendations to improve cybersecurity, such as the need for governments around to world negotiate a list of targets that are off limits to cyber-attacks.
