THE EU AS A GLOBAL ACTOR IN THE POST-COVID19 ERA: A STRONGER COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY

Adopted by the UEF XXVII European Congress, Valencia, 4 July 2021.

The Congress of the Union of European Federalists in Valencia on 3-4 July 2021:

• Having regard to the Treaty of Lisbon, in particular its article 31 as it regards Council unanimity requirements for foreign-policy decision making;
• Having regard to the European Union Global Strategy (EUGS) adopted by the HR/VP Federica Mogherini in 2016 and still in force;
• Having regard to the UEF Federal Committee Resolution on the European Union Global Strategy adopted on the 12 June 2016 in Strasbourg;
• Having regard to the UEF Federal Committee Resolution on a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) adopted on the 5 November 2017 in Cologne;
• Having regard to the UEF Federal Committee Resolution on the EU-US relationship adopted on the 18 June 2017 in Madrid;
• Stressing that the Covid-19 pandemic constitutes an unprecedented challenge for global governance and for the EU, which, in turn, has fostered very limited international cooperation with the global vaccination initiative COVAX, but produced the acceleration of European integration through mechanisms such as the Recovery Plan for Europe and the Health Union;
• Noting that the election of Joseph Biden Jr. as president of the United States constitutes an important change in American foreign policy and, therefore, a new opportunity for relaunching transatlantic relations; noting that this notwithstanding, the geopolitical environment continues to be ever more challenging, for Europe given the aggressive policies conducted by the governments of countries like Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, or Belarus, the unresolved Syria conflict, the worrisome Taliban offensive in Afghanistan, the crisis in Lebanon, and the latest Israel-Hamas conflict, among many other examples of instability and war in our neighbourhood;
• Noting the priorities of the UVDL Commission during its inauguration speech and the priorities of its political agenda, among which is a world-leading EU with strong strategic autonomy in the field of foreign policy and security and defence;

The Union of European Federalists,

1. Welcomes the conclusions drawn from the "Global Solutions Summit" of 27-28 May led by the German Chancellery and the Italian government on solving global problems through international solutions. We support the initiative of the future Italian presidency for the G20 in 2021 on the defence of multilateralism, the EU leadership in vaccination worldwide and the fight against climate change as the way forward for the European Union and overcoming the limits of unregulated globalisation.
2. Calls for an update of the EU Global Strategy of 2016, what is outdated due to the new challenges facing the EU after the June 2016: the Brexit, the Trump Administration or the Covid19 pandemic, among other ongoing challenges such as digitisation, the fight against climate change and the rise of nationalism. In this regard, we welcome the HR/VP initiative of the Strategic Compass for a stronger security and defence strategy, which aims to set up a common framework of Member States' priorities in order to shape an action plan towards the global arena in line with EU-27 demands and interests.
3. Welcomes the new EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime within the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024 adopted on the 7 December 2020 under the leadership of HR/VP Josep Borrell, as a key tool for addressing serious violations of human rights around the world, and its application to Russian officials for the arbitrary detention of Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, and repression against peaceful demonstrators; Chinese officials over the persecution of the Uyghurs; the Myanmar Junta for the repression of the opposition; and Belarussian officials on both the criminal case against the opposition council and the state-sponsored piracy incident in snatching an opposition journalist, Roman Protasevich, from the Ryanair flight.
4. Supports the efforts of the HR/VP in order to secure Iran´s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan on nuclear matters and the return of the US to the Pact; calls on Iran to refrain from supporting government and non-government militias and terrorist groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza;
5. Deplores the unilateral and un-coordinated withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, thereby allowing the Taliban to retake power in the country, to the great detriment democracy and Human Rights, including those of women and girls in particular.
6. Condemns the indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas, and reminds Israel that the right to self-defence must be proportionate and in accordance to International Humanitarian Law; calls for the independent investigation of war crimes; calls on Israel to reverse and avoid discriminatory tactics in Jerusalem, including its Holy Sites, and to stop the establishment of settlements in the West Bank; demands the revitalization of the Peace Process between Israel and Palestine; suggests a “two-state plus solution”, in the form of confederal-type solution of two sovereign states, thereby establishing a single market and recognizing the freedom of movement of its citizens, with Jerusalem as the joint capital of the two states and leaving its Holy Places under the jurisdiction of a supranational inter-confessional entity, among other measures that will enable Israelis and Palestinians live with the same standards of security, peace, and dignity.
7. Supports the EU-US Agenda for Global Change, timely proposed by the European Commission and the HR/VP on the 2 December 2020, which aims to strengthen cooperation on a number of strategic issues, including democracy and Human Rights, global warming, information technology and platforms, and data regulation, and welcomes a new pact that takes up the sectoral arrangements and brings back the annual summits held among the parties.
8. Deplores the use of unanimity as a method of decision-making in the Council, which has blocked European foreign policy on numerous recent occasions: Hungary blocked the EU-Arab League Joint Declaration from 2019 on migration, raised initial difficulties on measures against China and vetoed the HR/VP declaration on the still-going on Israel-Palestine conflict; Cyprus blocked measures against Belarus in order to secure a response to Turkey, etc.; calls for the activation of Qualified Majority Voting in the Council of Foreign Affairs under the pasarelles of the Treaty of Lisbon; calls on the Conference on the Future of Europe to address the issue of overcoming unanimity and the strengthening of the European External Action Service;
9. Demands a stronger World Health Organization (WHO) to fill gaps in and add value to existing global, regional, and national coordination mechanisms in the response to current and future challenges; to have a better emergence management capacity, WHO shall reduce its dependence on state members for its own resources; in order to gather such resources, calls on the UN and WHO to join discussion on the global minimum tax rate for companies proposed by the G7 and calls on countries to strengthen the COVAX solidarity vaccination initiative.
10. Urges the need to promote the democratization of globalization by a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations as a mechanism to achieve democratic control of globalization.