Europe and its neighbours. A round-up of EU foreign & neighbourhood policy
June 10, 2014 at 12:15 pm,
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By Hannes Swoboda
The following brief and deliberately selective report is based on my experiences on issues of the wider European neighbourhood, in the framework of my work in the European Parliament since 1996. In my functions as rapporteur for Croatia and for Russia, as member of different interparliamentary committees (South East Europe, Ukraine and South Caucasus and Central Asia) and after many visits to most of the countries of the Mashreq and Maghreb (as well as Iran), I had the privilege to gain both information and experience. My views were complemented by countless discussions with a variety of interlocutors when I was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, and as Vice-President and subsequently President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament in Brussels and in Strasbourg. My basic conclusion is that Europe cannot and must not choose between strengthening its internal structure and developing a strong and noticeable Common Foreign and Security Policy.