Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ remarks at a Conference on the Future of Europe panel discussion “Setting the Stage for Tomorrow: Global and Regional Engagement of the European Union – Security and Defence Aspects”

Dear Gordan,

Thank you so much, it is such a great pleasure to see you. May I also welcome the presence through video of the Vice-President of the EU Commission and may I please refer to Gordan’s acknowledgments of those present, because if I try to repeat them, I am sure I will forget at least half. But yet again, I have to say that I am very happy to be here today.

And if you allow me just a personal sub-note, I feel quite at home, I come from Corfu, a few hundred miles to the South. I am quite accustomed to the Adriatic environment and I love to be in this wonderful place, Pula.

Discussing and engaging with EU’s citizens, especially students and academia, on the core issues of our Union is indispensable for shaping our common future. And when Gordan invited me to co-host this event, I gladly seized the opportunity to participate. I even envied for organising such a series of events.

You know, a few months ago, I was discussing with a Commissioner on how the Commission and the institutions of the European Union envision organising this dialogue with European society on our common future. And they told me that they have created a platform in which citizens could interact with institutions of the European Union.

So I said what a nice idea. How many citizens, how many people have got into the platform and offered opinions? And they said 26.500. At that time, it sounded quite ok with me. But then I made the crucial questions: and can you please tell me, where they are coming from? And the answer was devastating. More than 20.000 were coming from Brussels. So it seems that part of this dialogue was being conducted in absentia of the European society.

So, what is being organised here today, Gordan, what you are organising in Croatia, I think it is exactly what needs to be done. And if you allow me I will propose to my Prime Minister who is going to visit you with me in a few days time, so you’ll have to see me again by the way, to copy. We have to discuss on our common home.

And I have to say that there is no need, really, discussing security and defence aspects of our Union to refer to the increased tensions and security issues we face around our periphery, our European periphery. You just have to listen to the news, there is not much more you have to do.

Our security environment is that of strategic competition among many powers, among big powers, but also regional powers with aggressive posture. And one has also to take into account climate change, terrorism, hybrid threats, and other problems such as the pandemic, which was totally incomprehensible just three years ago.

And if you allow me to say that in this very complex environment, the EU, our Union, has one choice: to assume more responsibility for its own security, the security of the Member States and the security of the European citizens.
We have to acknowledge that in the past few years, the EU was and is trying to move forward in the field of security and defence.

The EU Global Strategy set a high level of ambition for the role we want to have in this increasingly complex world. And we have developed new analytical tools to assess threats and potential crises.

Through the Permanent Structured Cooperation, the PESCO, we are working on a vast array of projects to develop our capabilities and foster close cooperation among Member States. If you allow me to underline it is of such crucial importance.

Also, there are projects aspiring, for example developing a European corvette, a European battle tank, systems of maritime surveillance, cyber-security elements that would address challenges.

The European Defence Fund is provided with a significant budget aiming to directly support research and industry in Europe which could create long-term benefits for the European businesses.

A huge step, the Strategic Compass, which as Gordan said, we were discussing in Brest just last week, could take this effort to the next level. We have through this Compass, the opportunity to set clear objectives and concrete deliverables in order to be able to act globally and to ensure our own security.

And there is a need to offer a clear-eyed strategic perspective for the years to come. The need is there.

There is a rational question that may be asked and Gordan again referred to it: do we need it? Is all this thing necessary? Or we can just avoid it and just move forward as we are. And by the way, save lots of money. Can we rely on NATO? NATO is there, most of the EU countries, not all of them, are member-states.

Well, for us, Greece, and I’ll tell you we do have a security problem and a big one, this is not a real dilemma.

First of all, streamlined European defence initiatives also benefit NATO and benefit the Euro-Atlantic cooperation. We are not speaking about two antagonistic worlds. And also, they make defence under the European aspect and security issues more comprehensible to the average European citizen; and, if I may be allowed to say, to the younger generation of Europeans.

That is, in our eyes, in the eyes of the Greek Government, a stronger European defence, makes also NATO strong.

And also, the European Union may eventually provide a larger set of tools in order to become a security provider than NATO itself. And if you’ll allow me to say, soft power, which, as told, Europe has a lot, also counts as a security element.

We are in many fields able to promote peace and stability in an important way. And also, let us not forget in humility, Europe is one of the major economies of the world. And we can acquire a robust diplomatic presence and activity, if all of us put our act together.

And we have to acknowledge, that Europe is the biggest provider of humanitarian and development aid in the world by far. How successful we are, and how efficiently that is done, that is another question. And if you travel in Africa you’ll understand what I am speaking about. But yet again, if we just take numbers into account, we are ahead by far. And, if I may say, rightly so.

And also, we have an impressive network of partnership as Europe, which would help us create a crisis management capability by far ahead of anything else.

So, all these assets, if put in use, could eventually make the European Union a flexible, adaptable and efficient security provider in the 21st century and beyond. Able to act, where NATO maybe cannot act, because it has the ability to do so.

What we need in order to make our European Union a stronger geopolitical power is, in my humble opinion, first of all, the will to do so. The ambition to do so. But also, the ability to define our own priorities, shape our decisions under a common Foreign and Security Policy. This is what could make Europe’s security and defence efforts relevant in today’s world.

But, we also need to be realists. If we want to make the European Union a global player, we must start at home, and we must start in our neighbourhood. We need more unity and more solidarity. We have to take each other’s security problems very seriously at heart.

And, Gordan and myself, sitting in the Council of Ministers, know very well cases, in which that did not happen at all.

It is a challenge to ensure our common security, and this will be the defining aspect, as we move to what we hope will be European integration. Because, a more integrated European Union, will be a more confident European Union; and a more confident European Union will be a more secure European Union, able to provide also more security in the overall region.

In the face of the huge geopolitical challenges we are facing, it is certain that the European voice is needed. But, the European voice that will be taken seriously by all actors.

And allow me to say, I am sorry to admit that we are not there yet.

Thank you so much.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic