Cyprus, as a front-line EU member state in a particularly complex geostrategic location, has a specific interest in fostering resilience for the EU and the Southern Neighbourhood, Cyprus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Ioannis Kasoulides has said, pointing out that Cyprus is interested in promoting the EU Global Strategyand.
Addressing a workshop organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union Institute for Security Studies and the Diplomatic Academy of the University of Nicosia titled “Fostering resilience for the EU and the Southern Neighbourhood”, Kasoulides said that a stable, secure and prosperous Europe needs stable, secure and prosperous Southern Neighbours.
“The inter-connectedness of challenges in our region, ranging from political instability, human insecurity, migratory flows, terrorism to issues such as access to education, youth employment and human rights, have created a clear need for the EU to recalibrate its policies”, he pointed out.
However, Kasoulides noted that the Southern Neighbourhood does not only pose challenges, but also opportunities, setting as an example the hydrocarbon reserves in the region that could play a key role in the EU’s energy diversification, a target that is as political as it is economic.
The Foreign Minister also said that the Strategy should not be a manual for every crisis and challenge that the world faces. “We don’t have the resources and the capability to be involved effectively and efficiently across the globe, but we do have the means, and it’s to the EU’s core interest, to be actively engaged with the neighbours of our neighbours”, he said, stressing that the EU could be a global actor by leading in its broader periphery.
This transformation of the international strategic and geopolitical environment led the Government of Cyprus to initiate the elaboration of its first National Security Strategy, he added.
“The main aim of this Strategy, of course, is the protection of the vital interests of the Republic and of its citizens. We also see this, though, as an instrument of policy-making that will strengthen Cyprus’ position, and enhance its role, as a regional stability actor on the southeastern border of the European Union”, he said.
The Special Adviser to HRVP Federica Mongerini, Nathalie Tocci, in her address, said that there are three main reasons why the EU is drafting a Global Strategy. “The first is that we are surrounded by crises both inside the EU and outside the EU and when you are surrounded by crises what you have to end up doing is reacting to those crises”, she said and added that the Global Strategy will provide sense of direction to the EU for the 7-8 years ahead.
The second reason, Tocci went on to say, has to do with unity, stressing that those crises that have to do with the EU itself internally tend to occupy most of our attention. She said that with the strategy, the EU is trying to find what unites the members on issues like the Grexit, the Brexit, the refugee crisis, the crisis over Russia, the Eurozone crisis etc. As she pointed out, by agreeing on the EU Global Strategy, which is a broader text of direction, the EU shows to its European citizens that we are actually still united.
The third reason, she explained, has to do with action and on how the EU should react on those crises.
The aim of the workshop is to contribute to the ongoing efforts of High Representative Mogherini in preparing an EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy to guide the European Union`s actions in the future.
