Implementation of the common foreign and security policy - annual report 2021

The European Parliament adopted by 474 votes to 113, with 102 abstentions, a resolution on the implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy - Annual Report 2021.

Parliament stressed that in order to achieve the strategic objective of broadening its leadership role on the international scene, the European Union should define its CFSP on the basis of the following actions:

(1) Taking the lead in strengthening multilateral partnerships on global priorities

Parliament welcomed the EU's ambition to strengthen the rules- and values-based multilateral order by reforming major institutions and organisations and by making better use of existing mechanisms and institutions of global multilateral governance. It recalled that the Union's foreign and security policy must ensure the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. It called for a truly strategic partnership between the EU and the UN in the field of climate action and human rights as well as in crisis management.

The EU is called upon to:

- defend and promote democracy globally by leading by example, including by ensuring strict compliance with the principles of democracy, human rights and rule of law in all Member States and promote an alliance of democracies worldwide;

- expand its toolbox to counter foreign interference, propaganda and influence operations and promote, through close cooperation with NATO, a whole-of-government approach to combating hybrid threats;

- expand its leadership role in defending and promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in multilateral fora, and ensure the transparent and effective use of the EU's global human rights sanctions regime;

- implement an ambitious programme, in cooperation with key partners, to support freedom of religion or belief outside the EU;

- propose new initiatives such as the internationalisation of the European Green Deal for Europe;

- present a robust global health strategy that includes global and EU efforts to ensure better global preparedness and an effective response to upcoming crises;

- ensure that exports of European monitoring and technical assistance technologies are subject to human rights diligence;

- implement a global connectivity strategy to provide a strategic response to strengthen its influence in many parts of the world such as Latin America, Africa and Asia.

(2) Improving EU visibility and decision-making

Parliament called for full and more effective use of the EU’s hard and soft power instruments, including by introducing qualified majority voting for decision-making in EU foreign policy.

The resolution underlined the need to establish a Security and Defence Union that would serve as a starting point for implementing a common European defence policy. The EU’s foreign policy needs to have its own instruments on foreign affairs, human rights, and security and defence. Moreover, it needs to strengthen its ability to act efficiently, timely, proactively and independently, and to shape the EU’s response to ongoing and upcoming challenges.

Parliament welcomed the ongoing Strategic Compass process as the starting point for making progress towards a European Security and Defence Union and for the strategic sovereignty of the EU.

(3) European sovereignty

Parliament called for the systematic interlinking of the Union's external and internal actions by combining the ability to act autonomously, where appropriate, with the willingness to show strategic solidarity with like-minded partners. It called for the EU to increase its strategic sovereignty in specific areas that are fundamental to the Union’s continued pre-eminence on the international stage, such as the promotion of EU values, fundamental rights, equitable trade, economics, security and technology, social justice, the green and digital transition, energy and its role in addressing the assertiveness of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.

Members stressed the need to preserve European independence in various key technological areas and to put forward a pragmatic and autonomous approach to avoid dependencies and geopolitical coercion in critical technological sectors.

(4) Further development of regional strategies

- Russia

Reaffirming its unwavering support to the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, Members condemned direct and indirect involvement by Russia and other external actors in armed conflicts as well as hybrid attacks, occupations and military build-ups inside the region or on its borders with the region. They reiterated their condemnation of Russia’s aggressive policies vis-à-vis Ukraine, notably the continuous financial and military support for armed formations in Donbas, the illegal occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the blockade of the Azov Sea and the military build-up at the eastern border of Ukraine and on the Crimean peninsula.

Parliament called for a revival of the Minsk Process to end the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine and for continuous assistance to Ukraine in its security sector and military reforms,.

- Turkey

Members remain deeply concerned by the Turkish Government’s increasingly assertive foreign policy, which is repeatedly putting the country at odds with the EU as a whole, its individual Member States and with countries in the neighbourhood. If the current situation is not reversed, the Commission should recommend the formal suspension of accession negotiations with Turkey.

- UK

While underlining the importance of the full implementation of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, including the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, Members remain open to further developing and strengthening the EU-UK cooperation framework, which could lead to an agreement on foreign security and defence policy and issues of shared concern.

- China

Stressing that China is a cooperation and negotiation partner for the Union, but also an economic competitor and systemic rival, Parliament called for the Union to develop a more assertive, comprehensive and coherent EU-China strategy. The EU is called on to develop a more assertive, comprehensive and coherent EU-China strategy that unites all Member States and shapes relations with an increasingly assertive and interventionist China in the interest of the EU as a whole.

The resolution noted with serious concern the recent display of force and escalating tensions in regional hotspots such as the South and East China Seas and the Taiwan Strait.

- Afghanistan

Parliament undermined that the situation in Afghanistan is a wakeup call for the EU to reassess the international approach to nation-building abroad and strategically reshape an integrated approach of its external policies, to increase its share of responsibility in global security and to seek greater sovereignty in its foreign and security policy.

(5) Strengthening democratic oversight, scrutiny and accountability and the parliamentary dimension of the EU’s CFSP

Lastly, the resolution noted the specific contribution of the European Parliament to the EU's foreign and security policy through its parliamentary diplomacy assets. Members stated that Parliament should make full use of its oversight and budgetary powers in the Union's decisions on the international scene.