Coherence, Commitment and Co-operation

-EU External Relations in an Era of Globalisation,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am very pleased to welcome you all here today, and I especially like to welcome Chris Patten and Ruud Lubbers.
I hope the EU commissioner will give an internal view of our external relations, and the UN High Commissioner for Refuges an external view on our external relations.

I hope these two days will provide a stimulating debate about the future shape of EU external relations.

It should be extra stimulating right now, because the Union faces historic challenges in the near future:

Only one year away, negotiations with candidate countries will be completed, for the next accession in 2004.

Only one month away, the euro coins and bills will be in circulation.

Only one week away, the Laeken Summit will give guidance to the future of Europe and the preparation for the next Inter Governmental Conference in 2004.

The Union has always had both an internal, and an external role of equal importance:

- internally, to promote peace, prosperity and social cohesion in Europe.

- externally to promote human rights, development and democracy globally.

The Union is much more than a market. It is an alliance based on values. Its foundation is the firm belief that these values not come to a halt at our national borders. And these values also reach beyond the borders of our Union.

This discussion is about solidarity, but also about enlightened self-interest:
in a globalised interdependent world, we all gain when poverty is replaced by development, protectionism by open and fair trade, oppression and intimidation by democracy and human rights.

And our decisions affect the outside world in the same way as theirs affects us:

- by completing our own internal market and reforming agricultural policy, we will stimulate an open economy.

- by adopting a humane migration policy, we will reduce the inhumane trafficking in individuals, and contribute to prosperity in the EU.

- by promoting the International Criminal Court, we will prevent crimes against humanity.

- by developing our Union, we will set an example also to others.

- and by promoting peace and development globally, we will also promote security in Europe.

We have both responsibilities and opportunities in foreign policy. Today's global challenges are numerous. We are now discussing how to deal with anti-globalisation. But the EU needs a strategy for globalisation more than we need a strategy for anti-globalisation.

Through our vast set of instruments, we have the unique potential to pursue our values globally.

"h The Union is the world's largest trading partner, and its economical weight will grow with the introduction of the euro.

"h The Union is the number one donor of development assistance, and will be even more so when all members meet the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP.

"h The Union is an active global political player, with virtually global presence through member state missions and Commission representations. On enlargement, the Union will carry even greater weight in the world. And our responsibilities and possibilities will grow even further.

And it is not as difficult as some might think to attain an effective common foreign and security policy among 27 countries; even today the candidate countries associate themselves with most EU statements.

In many ways we are much better off than ten years ago. Several of the instruments at hand today within the CFSP, trade policies and development co-operation, have either been established or gone through tremendous changes in recent years.

- We are developing military and civilian capacities for crises management; we have added conflict prevention as the third element of the ESDP; we are more active in the Balkans, in Central Asia, in Africa. And in the world after September 11, the EU, when acting as one, is effective and influential.

- We have agreed on a Community development policy, with poverty reduction as its main objective, and through the country strategies, we have a new tool for translating this policy into concrete action on the ground.

- With a Common European Economic Space with Russia, and a free trade area around the Mediterranean, we could in a few years time have nearly one billion people trading freely with one another; we have already the largest number of regional trade agreements in the world and more to come, including the Mercosur; and at the recent WTO meeting in Doha, we pushed successfully to launch a new multilateral trade round.

But there are many challenges left, and let me just give you some examples:

- We, and the international community at large, still have problems to react swiftly to crises; the UN Secretary-General has called for a Rapid Reaction Force which, on behalf of the UN, could cover the critical early phase of a peace operation, before a regular UN led peace-keeping force could be deployed. We have seen several times how late deployment has caused increased suffering, for instance in Kosovo, and when we are now building capacities for the EU military crises management, it is crucial that this will be used for UN operations.

- We still miss capacities to undertake much needed tasks like policing, demining, disarmament of armed groups and their reintegration into society ¡V and destruction of some of the 500 million small arms in circulation world-wide.

- In Macedonia, we have been able to use our many political, diplomatic, military and economic instruments in an integrated way, to prevent a full-scale violent conflict - how could this be our standard method when dealing with crises?

- How could we use the political dialogue in full, also to convey unpleasant messages ¡V for instance on human rights?

- We still see the lack of unanimity ¡V and problems to influence in the Middle East. Yesterday at a vote in the UN, the EU couldn¡¦t unite.

The hart of the matter is if we can set aside national interests to unite around common interests. We all have, and must have, national priorities, but we must use them as assets and compliments to the common policy, not as obstacles.

- Leif Pagrotsky will talk about how we could make the coming trade negotiations meaningful and worthy to be called "a development round", and get rid of all our tariffs and quotas which undermine our credibility as a promoter of open trade and global development.

And of course, it would give the Union more credibility if all member states could meet the 0.7 per cent target before next year¡¦s Conference on Financing for Development.

If we would have more coherence, commitment and co-operation, we would be more able to use our full potential.

Firstly, a truly Common Foreign and Security policy means coherence between trade, development, migration and environment. It means coherence between policy areas and pillars, between short- and long-term actions, between crisis management and reconstruction, between action in the field and in Brussels and between the different voices of the Union on foreign policy - the Presidency, the Commission, the High Representative and the Member States.

It means that member states need to set their priorities and be more consistent regardless of whether they are speaking in Brussels, Vienna, Strasbourg, New York, or in the field.

It means deficiencies within and between the institutions have to be dealt with, although some of the measures might be quite simple, like facilitating exchanges of expertise, ideas and personnel between institutions and capitals and the field.

With a genuinely coherent EU common foreign policy, links and interdependence between questions and objectives would be clearer. An integrated approach to countries, regions and issues would be facilitated, democracy and human rights more easily promoted, and our work with poverty eradication more efficient.

The Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries is a good example of co-ordination of policies. By creating a framework for co-operation, we have established the common values guiding our dialogue as well as forms for dealing with the problem if these common values are jeopardised.

Secondly, we need commitment to move from discussions and decisions to delivery and action. We need long-term working-programmes to ensure that an interest in a region or issue, such as the Great Lakes region or conflict prevention, lasts longer than six months. We need better co-ordination between different presidencies. We need to set priorities, and let them guide the allocation of resources. Priorities should be set through open Council debates and the reviews of potential conflict areas. Again, we all have things we want to stress from a national point of view, but then the result might be that we give priority to everything. And I am fully aware that I do as everyone else.

Thirdly, co-operation: Our institutions and capabilities can't be developed in isolation. Priorities must be set in dialogue with partners. We must learn from the experience of others, including the civic society organisations, and listen to the concerns of other regions.

Co-operation means actual joint projects in the field as we are currently seeing in West Africa for exemple. It involves the exchange of ideas, knowledge, information and technology. It brings about confidence among communities and individuals ¡V a partnership.

Co-operation means joining forces with other organisations, most notably the UN, like we are currently doing in Afghanistan. Joint missions, exchange of information, conflict prevention, and the work of reaching the Millennium Development Goals are other fields, where a strong EU-UN link would be mutually beneficial.

Co-operation also means sub-regional initiatives such as the Barcelona Process and the Northern Dimension to diminish the borders between members and partners, and also with other regions.

Now it is time to look ahead at the future of the EU. Ahead of us is enlargement. Ahead of us is the IGC. If we succeed in improving external policy the EU can make a difference not only in Europe, but also globally.

I am convinced, had we had a common foreign policy ten years ago, we would have avoided a decade of war in the Balkans. Let us learn from both our good and bad experiences for the future.

Thank you.