”The EU must maintain a greater military presence in crisis zones that pose a threat to Europe in the interests of stopping illegal immigration”, Minster of Defence István Simicskó stressed in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday.
Mr. Simicskó spoke to MTI after having taken part in a two-day meeting of European Union foreign and defence ministers in Brussels, together with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó.
On Monday, prior to the meeting, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini stressed: European defence must be reinforced in the interests of security. The drawing up of the European Defence Action Plan is necessary to enable Europe to respond to possible aggression in an autonomous manner, Ms. Mogherini added.
The Minister of Defence told reporters: he and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó were among the first to speak during the debate on the global strategy put forward by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy this summer.
According to Mr. Simicskó, the comprehensive target of the EU global strategy is for the European Union to be a strong player on the international political stage. “EU citizens are increasingly demanding that the European Union guarantee their safety. A cooperation must be developed within the field of security and defence policy in the European Union that is efficient, effective and provides real security to EU citizens”, he added.
The Defence Minister also highlighted: the fact that illegal immigration “must be stopped” was successfully included in the draft text of the strategy. “Uncontrolled immigration means instability and an increasing threat of terrorism for Europe”, Mr. Simicskó declared, adding “The security of EU citizens can be achieved directly through the protection of member states and the external Schengen borders”. “In addition, the European Union must maintain a stronger military presence and play a more effective role in the crisis zones that are the cause of migration”, he stressed.
“In the interests of curbing illegal immigration a military capability must be established, backed by police and civil forces, which is independently capable of performing crisis management duties in crisis zones that pose a danger to Europe, through stationing and mobile forces”, Mr. Simicskó also said.
The Minister told MTI: a decision was made to tighten cooperation between member states within the field of security and defence policy. “In addition to setting down this intent, another important element of this is the determination of the level of ambition with regard to military planning, i.e. what military capability and how large a force member states must have to enable the EU to take effective action independently in the interests of the security of its member states. Furthermore, military capability development must also be more coordinated in future”, he added.
Mr. Simicskó explained: All parties continue to agree that NATO will remain the guarantor of collective security, and believe that if the defence of the Europe Union is strengthened then that will also lead to a reinforcement of NATO. During defence planning it must be taken into account that the majority of EU member states are also members of NATO, so it is important that pledged forces should not be duplicated. This is one of the reasons why planning must be performed in coordination with NATO and why cooperation between the EU and NATO must be further improved. The implementation plan of the European Union’s global strategy is expected to be put before the EU’s heads of state and government in December.
During the Brussels summit, the Hungarian Defence Minister also reported on the meeting of Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) defence ministers held in Austria a week earlier. In addition to defence ministers from Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia, Poland was also present at the meeting as an observer and Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia also took part in view of their involvement in the migration crisis. The main topic of discussion was the migration crisis and the parties agreed that the migration crisis will continue to pose one of the greatest challenges for Europe and accordingly non-governmental, military and police resources must be reviewed. The parties also agreed that regular meetings must be held in future with the added participation of their respective ministers of interior.
An agreement was also reached on the fact that the CEDC will also be drawing up an action plan for protecting the borders of countries affected by the Western Balkan migration route, and that the mandate of the EUFOR Althea EU military operation in Bosnia-Hercegovina will be extended in the interests of the stability of the Western Balkans.