The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, yesterday advocated strengthening the EU’s foreign and defence policy, as well as its strategic capabilities, following the events in Afghanistan.
Closing a Menéndez Pelayo International University course on the future of Europe by videoconference, Albares said that the Afghan crisis “has put our strategic security on the table” and “has shown us that the EU needs more strategic capabilities”, which is why he called for “the most united response possible to the challenges that exist today in Afghanistan”.
On the other hand, the minister pointed out that the “social pillar has to become central to the decisions that are taken” in Europe, and said that “in the midst of the biggest health crisis in the last century”, which has triggered an economic and social crisis, Europe has been able to “rise to the occasion”. First, he said, by promoting the Recovery Fund, which represented the “historic milestone” of joint debt issuance, and then with the joint programme for the purchase of vaccines, thanks to which “we have 70% of the population with full vaccination coverage” and “without having banned exports and donations to third countries”.
