Alfred Sant: European defence action plan ‘totally ill-advised’

Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant has told the European Parliament that the European Commission’s proposal to work on a European Defence Action plan and a European Defence Fund will reinforce “wide scepticism” about the European project.

In remarks on the debate on the Commission’s 2017 work programme, in Strasbourg, Sant said the “totally ill-advised” defence plan was “the kind of project that people in the Brussels bubble dream of in their efforts to counter what they see as Europe fatigue. Besides having unintended consequences, some of them unknown, others dangerous, a so-called European defence capability, or even a start to it, will simply end up, sooner rather than later, reinforcing the wide scepticism about the European project that these people seek to contain.”

The main objective of the Action Plan will be to bring together core elements of existing defence policies on the internal market, industrial policy and research and combine them, in a coherent way with new initiatives to provide synergies between security and defence, especially in the field of space. Its aim is to provide a 'legal and policy framework to ensure that the European market, and the industrial and skills basis, will be able to deliver the military capability priorities that Member States may need to meet future security needs'.

Sant also said the Commission’s 2017 programme merited full support at least for the establishment of a European Solidarity Corps that will engage young people in worthwhile public initiatives from which they could learn social and technical skills, while understanding better today’s realities in a changing Europe.

This is the third Work Programme to be presented by the Juncker Commission, and includes concrete proposals which will contribute to the long-term vision of the Union ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome in March 2017.

Formerly, the Commission proposed an average of over 130 new initiatives in each annual Work Programme. This year, it contains only 21 key initiatives, reflecting the priority focus on agreeing and implementing the proposals already on the table from previous years.