Speech at the plenary session in the debate on the implementation of the EU global strategy, with the participation of Federica Mogherini, High Representative for foreign and security policy.
Mister President, Madam High Representative, despite of your remarkable and honourable efforts, and several successes for which you deserve congratulations, the European diplomacy can barely keep up the pace with the various national diplomacies, and it cannot even match their weight on the international scene. This poses a real problem at the time when the European Union does not seem to be far away from laying the foundations of a common defense policy, which requires a common vision of our interests, of our place in the world and of the threats and dangers we have to face.
Would you think that under these conditions the administration that you have directed could take up, as priority tasks, to define, firstly, the medium and long-term objectives of a European diplomacy, secondly, the means to achieve a convergence and thirdly, the steps this would require. Thank you for your answer.