Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced yesterday in Brussels the adhesion of Spain to the German initiative to create a “group of friends” in favor of qualified majority in decision-making on common foreign and security policy.
The group consists of Germany, Belgium, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia. In response, Hungary has proposed the creation of “a group of friends of the veto.” According to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Russia’s war against Ukraine has shown that the EU must act “quickly, effectively and united” because its importance as a “global political player” depends on it, and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, recalled that he himself, even during his previous stint as Spanish Foreign Minister, has “always” argued for an end to unanimity (and therefore the veto) “because it is clear that we are too slow in making decisions.”
“When an issue has a group of friends is that there is a group of countries that have clear ideas and the big changes in the EU always start with a vanguard of countries that are clear about where the EU should move,” Albares said at the press conference after the first day of the Foreign Affairs Council, held in Brussels. “We have all agreed that the Russian aggression in Ukraine has shown us the need to maintain unity, but also to respond with agility in making decisions on major global issues,” he continued. “Europe’s voice needs to be heard quickly, effectively and with agility and Russia’s war in Ukraine and its consequences encourage us to evolve in that direction,” he added.
“For many years the EU was criticized for being slow, for being bureaucratic, for being far removed from the needs of citizens,” but “both the response to the COVID crisis and the response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine have shown us that the EU can be fast, can be agile and can respond to exactly what European citizens need,” Albares said. “The move to qualified majority voting in matters such as foreign and security policy is a step forward precisely so that whoever is not comfortable with a measure does not hinder everyone else when we want the EU’s presence to be felt quickly in the world,” he warned. Moreover, he stressed, “if we want to think seriously about EU enlargement, we also have to rethink the rules by which we organize ourselves to make decisions effectively and quickly.”
Western Balkans and Ukraine
Precisely, another highlight of the Brussels FAC was the working lunch with the Western Balkan foreign ministers. “Spain is obviously committed to the enlargement of the EU to the Balkans, and that is why today (yesterday), during the formal Council meeting and during the lunch with our colleagues from the Western Balkans, I presented the proposal to hold, during the Spanish Presidency, a meeting in Spain with the Foreign Ministers of the Western Balkans to address, precisely, that EU-Western Balkans agenda,” said Albares, who had already announced this initiative during his recent three-day tour of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and North Macedonia.
“We want to encourage our Balkan partners to accelerate their reform processes in order to give a strong impetus to their rapprochement with the EU,” he added. The proposal, which was raised more than a month ago in a letter to Borrell to “start organizing this meeting,” has been “very well received, both by European colleagues and, of course, by colleagues from the Western Balkans,” he assured. In addition, Albares held a bilateral meeting yesterday with the Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, to address “precisely this ministerial meeting in Spain under the Spanish Presidency”.
Albares also recalled the meeting he will hold today in Valencia with his counterparts from Romania, Bogdan Aurescu, and Poland, Zbigniew Rau. The objective of the three countries with this meeting, in an unprecedented format to date, is “to consolidate it annually as a forum for exchange between three fundamental European partners – we are the fourth, fifth and sixth largest economies in the EU – and allies in NATO,” he said. The meeting has been structured in two parts, one dedicated to the European Union and the Spanish Presidency and a second that will focus on security issues in the NATO framework and the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
At the end of the meeting, according to Foreign Affairs, the three ministers will sign the common declaration of the Valencia Trio, in which they will confirm their willingness to consolidate this format and will address political consultations between the three foreign ministers and support for the Spanish Presidency, the European agenda and security and defense.
Regarding Ukraine, Albares informed that during yesterday’s meeting there was no discussion “regarding fighters or any other type of armament, beyond recalling that, at this time, the supply of ammunition and other war material for Ukraine is essential for it to be able to defend its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and defenseless civilians”. According to the minister, the 27 focused above all on sanctions and on the fight against impunity through the creation of a tribunal to judge “the crimes being committed in Ukraine”.
