Activities of Andrew DUFF related to 2012/2223(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the EU’s mutual defence and solidarity clauses: political and operational dimensions PDF (253 KB) DOC (195 KB)
Amendments (22)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1
Citation 1
– having regard in particular to Article 42(7) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and to Article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and to Declaration 37,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 2
Citation 2
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 6 a (new)
Citation 6 a (new)
- having regard to Articles 4 and 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty,
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the Lisbon Treaty introduced Article 42(7) TEU (‘mutual defence clause’ or ‘mutual assistance clause’6 ) and Article 222 TFEU (‘solidarity clause’) to address such concerns, but the practical implementation of these articles still needs to be clarified, almost three years after the Treaty entered into force;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E – footnote 6
Recital E – footnote 6
6. Hereinafter referred to as ‘mutual defeassistance clause’; no name is included in the Treaty though. Cf. in particular the mutual defence commitment of Article V of the Modified Brussels Treaty, which its signatories consider covered by Article 42(7) TEU (Statement of the Presidency of the Permanent Council of the WEU of 31 March 2010).
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas the twenty-one EU states which are also members of NATO may consult each other whenever their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened, and which are in any case committed to collective defence in the event of an armed attack;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Urges the Member States, the Commission and the Vice-President/High Representative to make full use of the potential of all relevant Treaty provisions, and in particular the mutual defeassistance clause and the solidarity clause, in order to provide Europeans with a strong insurance policy against serious security risks, based on increased cost-efficiency and a fair burden sharing and division of costs;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Notes the new strategic concept of NATO which, in addition to maintaining NATO's role as a wartime military alliance, aims to build NATO's capacity to act as a political and security community, working in partnership with the EU; observes the close similarities between NATO's goals and those laid down in Article 43 TEU (formerly the Petersberg Tasks); warns therefore against the costly duplication of effort and the wasting of resources between the two organisations, and urges much closer and regular political collaboration between the EU High Representative and the Secretary- General of NATO for the purposes of risk assessment, resource management, policy planning and execution of CSDP operations, both civil and military;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Urges the Council not to get entangled in ultimately futile arguments about territoriality but to emulate the approach of NATO which caters for the inevitable circumstances where action outside the North Atlantic area is sometimes required to promote the security interests of the allies;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Points out the wide array of instruments available to the Union and the Member States to face exceptional occurrences in a spirit of solidarity, such as the Civil Protection Mechanism, the Solidarity Fund, and the possibility to grant economic and financial support in cases of severe difficulties, as provided for in Article 122 TFEU; also recalls the commitment to develop mutual political solidarity in foreign and security policy in accordance with; recalls the utility of the legal bases of Article 122 TFEU for emergency funding of an economic type and of Article 24196 TFEU; stresses that the purpose of the mutual defence and solidarity clauses is not to replace any of th for measurese instruments, but to complement them in view of situations of extraordinary threat or damage, and in particular when response will require high-level political coordination and the involvement of the military the field of civil protection;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Recalls the commitment to systematically develop mutual political solidarity in foreign and security policy in accordance with Article 24 TEU; notes the possibilities provided by the Lisbon treaty for enhanced cooperation in CFSP, including the consignment of specific tasks and missions to clusters of states, as well as the concept of permanent structured cooperation in military matters; stresses that the purpose of the mutual assistance and solidarity clauses is not to replace any of these instruments, but to complement them in view of situations of extraordinary threat or damage, and in particular when response will require high-level political coordination and the involvement of the military;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls onUrges the Commission and the Vice- President/High Representative, in the context of their ongoing work on abefore the end of 2012, to make their joint proposal for a Council Decision defining the arrangements for the implementingation of the solidarity clause as required by the Treaty, to take due accountccording to the provisions of Article 222(3) TFEU; in the interest of coherence, calls for the Political and Security Committee and the Standing Committee on Internal Security to submit a joint opinion on the implementation of the psoliticaldarity clause and the operational dimensions of both clauses and to follow the recommendations of this resolutionmodalities of the mutual assistance clause, including liaison with NATO; notes that the Council will act by QMV in non-military aspects of mutual aid and assistance; underlines the necessity, in this context, of keeping Parliament fully informed;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 2
Subheading 2
Mutual defeassistance clause –Scope
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Reminds the Member States of their unequivocal obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power if a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory; stresses that, while large-scale aggression against a Member State appears improbable in the foreseeable future, both traditional territorial defence and defence against new threats need to remain high on the agenda; recalls also that the Treaty stipulates that, for the EU countries that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO remains the foundation of their collective defence and the forum for its implementation, and that commitments and cooperation in the area of mutual defence must be consistent with commitments under NATOrecalls also that the large majority of EU states are members of NATO and that, accordingly, the Union's common security and defence policy must be compatible and consistent with commitments under NATO; takes good note of the specific character of the security and defence policies of those EU states which are not members of NATO, but observes nevertheless that the EU's mutual assistance clause will never be activated without having consulted NATO and sought its engagement;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Points out, at the same time, the equally important need to prepare for situations involving non-NATO EU Member States or EU Member State territories outside the North Atlantic area, and therefore not covered by the Washington Treaty, or situations where no agreement on collective action is reached within NATO which NATO chooses not to become involved;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Emphasises the importance of deterrence, and therefore the need for European countries to possess credible military capabilities; encourages Member States to step up their efforts on collaborative military capability development, notably through the complementary ‘"Pooling and Sharing’" and ‘"Smart Defence’" initiatives of the EU and NATO, which represent a critically important way ahead in times of restrained defence budgets; in this context, repeats its call for the work of the European Defence Agency to be more fully respected and exploited by national defence ministries;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Reiterates its call for systematic harmonisation of military requirements and a harmonised EU defence planning and acquisition process, matching up to the EU's level of ambition and coordinated with the NATO Defence Planning Process; taking into account the increased level of security guarantees provided by the mutual defeassistance clause, encourages the Member States to consider multinational cooperation on capability development and, where appropriate, specialisation as core principles of their defence planning;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Takes the view that, where collective action is taken to defend a Member State under attack, it should be possible to action under Article 42(7) TEU should best make use of existing EU crisis management structures where appropriate, and in particular, but that, in the possibility of activating an EU Operational Headquarters should be envisaged; stresses that a fully-fledgedlonger term, the establishment of a permanent EU Operational Headquarters is needed to ensure an adequate level of preparedness and rapidity of response, and reiterates its call on the Member States to establish such a permanent capacitys to be envisaged, building on the recently activated EU Operations Centre;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27 a. Highlights the need for political coordination in the Council in cases of severe crises; notes the review of the EU Emergency and Crisis Coordination Arrangements (CCA) and welcomes the agreement within the Council on the new CCA conceptual framework, making use of regular Council procedures, notably the COREPER, instead of ad hoc structures; stresses that responding at EU political level in a coherent, efficient and timely way to crises of such a scale and nature requires only one single set of arrangements; considers therefore that the new CCA should also support the solidarity clause;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
35. Recalls that the solidarity clause requires the European Council to regularly assess the threats facing the Union; insists that this assessment must be coordinated with NATO; takes the view that such assessments need to be maddone at least at two distinct levels: on a more long-term basis in the European Council, in a process which should also feed strategic thinking to be reflected in future updates of the European Security Strategy and the Internal Security Strategy, as well as through more frequent comprehensive overviews of current threats;