Paris, 6 June 2007 - Kosovo, Afghanistan, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa will be among Portugal´s top security and defence priorities when it takes over the WEU/EU presidency on 1 July, according to Manuel Lobo Antunes, Portugal´s State Secretary for European Affairs.
“While not threatened by the likelihood of large-scale aggression, Europe is confronted with a broad spectrum of more diffuse but equally dangerous security threats, with global terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the dangers posed by failed states in Europe´s vicinity ranking among the most serious,” he told the Assembly on Wednesday. “While striving to achieve better relations with Russia, we must focus on those areas where we share fundamental interests and in which we are likely to accomplish better results by working together. Security and stability in Europe constitute one of the clearest examples of this kind of common challenge”.
In a wide-ranging speech and question and answer session, Mr Lobo Antunes stressed the importance of a UN Security Council resolution on the future status of Kosovo. Only then should “we have the legitimacy to intervene in Kosovo, with a view to building a more prosperous future for the territory”, he said. A rule of law mission of around 2 000 experts from the EU, the United States, Norway and Turkey would soon begin, he noted. The European Security and Defence Policy´s (ESDP) Police Mission would play a vital role in ensuring there was no gap in security after the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) pulled out.
On Turkey, Mr Lobo Antunes said  “Continuing negotiations with Turkey is a contract we must respect”. Commenting on the row between the US and Russia over the deployment of a US antimissile shield in Europe, Mr Lobo Antunes urged countries to play down the rhetoric and “go back to work and seek a consensual agreement as soon as possible”. He added he was confident that face-to-face dialogue would defuse the dispute.
Turning to the stalled draft European Constitutional Treaty, he said there was “a political need to reach agreement as soon as possible”. Meanwhile, the EU was distracted from other important issues and questions. Referring to the years of preparation behind the text, he said “we do not need to reinvent the wheel” and “we cannot go on year after year debating the Treaty”. But he added that EU countries had to give “a very clear and detailed mandate” to the future Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) and a “very, very clear message” on what it was supposed to negotiate and what had been “agreed and therefore should not be touched”. He noted that a Treaty would have to cover a number of internal needs, such as freedom, justice and security, and external needs, such as conflict prevention and peacekeeping. “Europe must speak with a united voice”, he declared.
National parliaments could not replace the European Commission or acquire any of the prerogatives of other European institutions. But the parliaments had a “vital role to play” in bringing citizens closer to Europe. The European Defence Agency (EDA) should be strengthened with new instruments. It was just coming out of an experimental phase and he felt the conclusions were positive.
Mr Lobo Antunes hoped progress would be achieved in strengthening an EU-Mediterranean dialogue by the end of the Slovenian presidency in 18 months´ time. During its presidency, Portugal planned to organise a meeting between EU defence ministers and their counterparts in the Mediterranean countries participating in the 5+5 process - Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.
He also said that the EU had not done everything it “should and could” to help rebuild civil society in Afghanistan and that the UN should “play an increased leading role” there. That would emphasise the “legitimacy of the international presence and its plural approach, so often erroneously characterised as a foreign military intervention”, he said. The second phase of the EU police mission would begin on 18 June and would bring the number of personnel involved to 160 by November, he noted.
As for Africa, he hoped for “less ambitious words but more ambitious actions than in the past” at the second EU-Africa summit that would be held in Lisbon during the Portuguese Presidency. On the table would be good governance, rule of law, human rights, immigration, energy and climate change, as well as security and defence, he said. The aim was to “approve a groundbreaking and comprehensive” joint strategy that would stress the two parties´ commitment to the principle of African ownership, as well as taking the relationship “to a new level”.