Welcome note by Oberkirchenrätin Katrin Hatzinger on occasion of the presentation of the Peace Report 2019

Members of Parliament,

ladies and gentlemen,

dear guests,

thank you for your interest in today´s event. It has become a good tradition to combine the presentation of the joint yearbook of the German institutes for peace and conflict research with a discussion of a topical issue relating to the EU`s foreign, security and defence policy.

Before we start, a big thank you to the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, our cooperation partner, and to Sidonie Wetzig for moderating the panel.

A special thanks is dedicated to Julia Eichler from my office for her input in preparing this event.

„The EU as a global player – blocked between a sense of urgency and the need for unity?” that is the question we will discuss today. A warm welcome at this stage to our panelists, the researcher and author Dr. Matthias Dembinski, former Estonian defence and foreign minister, MEP Sven Mikser, and last but not least to Senior Military Superintendent Dirck Ackermann. Due to a cancelled flight at Hamburg the editor in chief of this year´s peace report, Prof. Dr. Ursula Schröder, unfortunately cannot be with us today.

With the newly elected European Parliament, the incoming European Commission including a new DG for Defence Industry and Space and a new High Commissioner it is a pivotal moment to discuss possible ways forward in the EU foreign, security and defence policy.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has repeatedly demanded that Europe should develop its “Weltpolitikfähigkeit.

When presenting her team in September President elect Ursula von der Leyen refered to this idea and announced that she would move from a “political” to a “geopolitical Commission” implying that the focus of the EU will be aiming at more external action due to a changing geopolitical landscape where China, the US and Russia follow their own agendas and where multilateralism is at stake bringing up new uncertainties and risks for European values. Therefore, it was not a surprise that vdL sees the next EU Commission also in the role of a guardian of multilateralism.

So, it can be expected that the role of the High Represenative will be strengthened with the experienced current Spanish foreign minister Joseph Borrell. Moreover, it remains to be seen in which way the new DG on Defence industry and space will be helping in promoting a common foreign, security and defence policy if at all.

One thing is clear though: a geopolitical agenda can only be implemented successfully in a politically united and economically strong union. But is there enough unity and do all the European partners share the sense of urgency in moving ahead?

So far, the aim of “strategic autonomy”, i.e. that Europe takes its fate in its own hands, has facilitated the efforts on EU level to strive for a more ambitious and integrated common European foreign, security and defence policy. But it remains to be seen whether the longing for a strong European voice in the world and the acknowledgement that there is a need for improving military capabilities and interoperability of European armed forces will actually be enough to maintain the momentum and will manage to keep MS (more or less) united. Is there enough political trust among MS to continue moving along together and how can differences in strategic cultures, level of engagement and military traditions between MS been overcome, e.g. when it comes to arms export control?

As Protestant Church in Germany we are monitoring the developments on EU level with a high degree of interest strongly believing in the role of the EU as a soft power and debating about how far European integration in foreign, security and defence policy can reach without hampering the European Union as a peace project. Mrs von der Leyen stated in her Straßburg speech that a European Union of security and defence must be embedded in comprehensive security including diplomacy, reconciliation and reconstruction. A point we would strongly underline. Our Church Parliament will discuss the issue of peace in November in Dresden and we in Brussels are interested in fostering the public debate about strategic autonomy, i.e. taking on greater foreign policy and security responsibility in Europe and the world. 

So today is a great opportunity to have the debate and I am curious to listen now to our experts on how they assess the state of play and where they see chances of establishing the EU as a global player without putting at risk the EU´s trade mark of conflict prevention, stabilization and diplomacy.

I wish us all a fruitful exchange, thank you for coming and now hand over to Dr. Matthias Dembinski from the Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, one of the authors of this year´s peace report to give us an overview on this year´s edition.