Dear professors and faculty members of Miami University,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
But first and foremost:
Dear students,
I have heard that you have just arrived here in Luxembourg, to spend the next semester, and for some of you the next year in Luxembourg and in Europe. Let me therefore first of all say: WELCOME !
I hope that your studies will leave you time to also learn some things about Luxembourg, and about Europe as a whole: after all, you are here in one of the European capitals.
I am delighted to be able to speak to you today about the role of Luxembourg and Europe in global politics. I know that you are going to have another lecture, in a few weeks, about the history of Luxembourg, which is why I am not going to bother you with too much detail about Luxembourg’s recent history but let me give you just a few elements of history to put Luxembourg’s position in Europe and in the world today into perspective.
Luxembourg, as you might have noticed, is not exactly a big country, and has never been, although it was geographically bigger a few centuries ago. Our country suffered a lot in the two World Wars, especially the second, when its neutrality was once more baffled by German troops, its territory invaded and the country annexed to Nazi Germany. The Government and the Grand-Ducal family went into exile in London, putting an end to the neutrality of the country to firmly take the side of the Allied powers.
After the War, the Luxembourg authorities were determined to engage the country in the emerging multilateral system and chose to be a founding member of all other major international organisations that were created to mitigate the danger of another World War, like the United Nations, NATO, or the Council of Europe. Luxembourg had at that point already engaged in a close cooperation with Belgium and the Netherlands, in the Benelux community.
As Luxembourg’s leaders were convinced that the lasting reconciliation of France and Germany was a precondition for peace and security on the European continent, it was only natural that Luxembourg would also become one of the driving forces behind integration in Europe.
Since the creation on the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, of which Luxembourg was one of the six founding members, all successive governments have been convinced that what was good for an integrated and unified Europe could only be good for Luxembourg as well, and have therefore positioned Luxembourg at the forefront of the European integration movement. Very frequently, Luxembourg has been able to play the role of the mediator between bigger Member States, to help advance the European integration. Today, we are proud to be a founding member of that ever closer Union that the founding fathers had dreamed about, a Union that, as in Robert Schuman’s vision, developed from an economic Union into a political Union through small steps creating real solidarities among its Member States.
The EU has indeed come a very long way since its creation: it started out as a peace project, aiming at bringing together the nations and the peoples of Europe. As a peace project, it has been largely successful. As an economic community, with a single market, it soon asserted its position on the international scene. And as the Union grew bigger and expanded its fields of competence and of responsibility, its relations with the rest of the world evolved accordingly. Nowadays, the Union wants to share its values with other parts of the world, and promote peace and security in regions where they are needed, drawing on its own experience of peace-building in Europe after the War.
Over the years, the range of activities covered by the European Union has increased in a spectacular way as Member States realized the benefits of joining efforts in a variety of fields. From coal and steel to agricultural policy at the start, to the customs union to the internal market, justice and home affairs, there is today almost no sector that is left out of the cooperation among the member States of the European Union. For all Member States, small or large, European policies have become national policies, with direct implications on the lives of citizens and on our national laws. This is as true for Luxembourg as for any other Member State, or maybe even truer: being a small country very strongly engaged in the European integration process, Luxembourg might possibly be the most “European�? Member State that you are going to come across.
The same goes for our foreign policy: Luxembourg’s foreign policy is very tightly linked to the European Union and its policies – where, as in all other policy fields, we participate very actively in the decision-making process. Foreign and security policy is a relatively new field of cooperation in Europe – but a very obvious one if one considers the European Union’s position in the world: Today, the European Union has a population of almost 500 million people - more than the United States and Russia combined if you allow me that remark -, it generates a quarter of the world’s wealth and gives more aid to developing and poor countries than any other donor. The Euro, our common currency, comes second only to the US dollar on the international financial markets. It is therefore only natural that we try to spread the peace and security that lie at the heart of our European project beyond our borders. To achieve this goal, the European Union has developed, over the last fifteen years, a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP, in short), as well as a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), that allow us to deliver on our commitment to act as a force for stability and understanding in the wider world.
This security and defence policy is the European Union’s very own strategic concept to address threats where they arise, from regional conflicts, from terrorism, from proliferation or in failed states. It is a policy field that is constantly expanding, providing the EU with credible means to intervene and act around the world, in the military as well as the civilian field. I am not sure whether you know that European forces, military and police, have been deployed in many different countries and that Europe today has more than 70.000 troops deployed in various peace support missions across the globe, if you consider ESDP missions as well as other international peacekeeping missions by NATO or the United Nations.
The European Union has been and is running an important number of these missions, for example in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where we have taken over from NATO forces, or in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where a European military mission, as well as a European police mission, have completed their peacekeeping activities, and where an advisory mission is now assisting the authorities to modernize their country and to undertake reforms to strengthen the rule of law. Last year, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a European military mission, has contributed, in cooperation with the United Nations, to securing the first free and democratic elections in forty years in this war-torn country. In Aceh in Indonesia, a European Union monitoring mission oversaw the implementation of the peace agreement concluded in August 2005. In Iraq, the European Union’s civilian mission is training senior Iraqi officials and executive staff from the judiciary, the police and the penitentiary in the fields of management and criminal investigation, to assist the Iraqi people to build a peaceful and secure country. More than 700 judges, senior magistrates and police have already participated in the EU-sponsored training. European troops today provide the backbone of the international community’s presence in trouble spots like Lebanon or Kosovo.
In most of these cases, the European Union was the obvious choice as peacekeeper, advisor or observer, because it was acceptable to all forces and actors involved, or because it could react quickly and efficiently, without intervening in a too disruptive fashion. Luxembourg is contributing to these European missions, financially or with personnel, as much as we can, without forgetting our commitment to NATO: we continue to also provide troops to NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, for example: Luxembourg troops have been part of ISAF in Afghanistan since 2003 and of KFOR in Kosovo since 1999.
One of Europe’s most important commitments as a responsible global actor lies indeed with our immediate vicinity, the Balkans, where the European Union has been able to act as a stabilising force over the last years inter alia through the perspective of eventual EU integration. A major challenge remains, however, in this respect, ahead of us: the settlement and implementation of the future status of Kosovo and, related to it, our relations with Serbia. From the beginning of the efforts of the United Nations to find a solution for Kosovo’s status, the European Union has been a supporter of the process, and has stated its willingness and determination to fully play its role in Kosovo, and to become the driving force behind the future international presence there, working in cooperation with all the other international actors on the ground.
We are therefore already preparing for the biggest civilian mission that the EU has so far organised under the European Security and Defence Policy, in the fields of the rule of law and the judiciary, to help the authorities and the people of Kosovo to implement the new status and develop a well-functioning and modern democracy capable of being integrated into the European Union in a long-term perspective. Here again, Luxembourg stands ready to do its share as a member of the EU and has already confirmed initial contributions to this important missions.
Dear students,
In his report to the General Assembly in March 2005, the then Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan stated that “Humanity will not enjoy security without development, it will not enjoy development without security, and it will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.�?
We certainly share the view that there is a need for an integrated concept of collective security; that development, security and human rights are interdependent and mutually reinforcing and we aim at reflecting this approach in the EU’s policy on the global stage.
I have tried these last few minutes to illustrate through various examples how the Union is aiming to contribute through political, civil and military crisis management to promote peace and security.
As far as development is concerned, let me mention some key facts that speak, I presume, for themselves: the European Union and its Member States together account for 55 % of worldwide official development assistance (ODA). In this important field, as well as in others that I am going to come back to, the European Union is trying to set new standards, acting as a forerunner on the global scene. Indeed the EU, in the run-up to the 2005 UN Summit and the 5 year review of the Millennium Development Goals, showed its concrete commitment by reaffirming its determination to attain the internationally agreed target of development aid of 0.7% of Gross National Income by 2015, a decision which will result in an additional 20 billion euros a year in ODA.
Development policy is again a policy field of the European Union in which Luxembourg is very strongly involved. I am proud to say that Luxembourg is indeed one of the very few countries around the world that devote more than 0.7% of GNI to official development assistance. We have reached 0.89 % in 2006, and we are aiming to attain 1 % of GNI in the next few years. We will continue to push our partners in the European Union for increased commitment in this field, to make sure that the European Union will be able to honour its ambitious targets.
This commitment to combat global poverty stems not only from the moral obligation to help those poorer than we are, but resides also in the recognition that it will help to build a more stable, peaceful, prosperous and equitable world, reflecting the interdependency of its richer and poorer countries. Thus the need to pursue and step up our efforts and our assistance, which despite being substantial and more important than that of all the other donors, is far from being sufficient as long as some 1.200 children die of poverty every hour and a billion people are struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day.
Dear students,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I will not have time to address all the major global challenges that Luxembourg, Europe and the international community are facing, but let me mention one more field in which the European Union tries to act as a global leader, to set an example and encourage the rest of the international community to act in turn: energy, environment and climate change. This does not only reflect the conviction of our public opinions, but has become a necessity.
At the European Council of March this year, we have taken groundbreaking decisions in this field: European leaders agreed on a long-term strategy on energy policy, setting binding targets to slash greenhouse gas emissions, develop renewable energy sources, promote energy efficiency and use biofuels. These targets are ambitious: by 2020, at least 20 % of the energy used in the EU should come from renewable sources; at least 10 % of the fuels used in transport should be biofuels and emissions should be reduced to 20 % below the levels of 1990. To incite other big consumers of energy, like the United States but also Russia, China, India or Brazil to follow suit, our leaders also agreed to increase the emissions cap to 30 % if those countries agree to cut their emissions as well. The European Union is actively working to prepare the period after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol will have expired.
Dear students,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have tried to give you a short overview over the European Union’s, and within it, Luxembourg’s, policies to address challenges in the field of foreign relations and security. In a world of global threats, our security and prosperity depend increasingly on an effective multilateral system. The EU understands its action on the global stage as a contribution to such an effective multilateral system, a stronger international society, well-functioning international institutions and a rule-based international order. In our interdependent world, the active European foreign and security policy does therefore go hand in hand with important bilateral relations with third countries and other multilateral organizations. I would not want to end this speech without talking a little bit about our relations with other actors on the world stage, and foremost the United States of America, which is certainly our biggest and most important partner.
Europe and America are very tightly linked, firstly by our history. Europe will never forget that it owes America its liberation and its freedom. While these emotional links remain strong, our diplomatic and political relations are the bedrock of the international community, and our trade relations dominate the world economy.
The European Union and the United States are indeed the two largest economies in the world and account together for about half the entire world economy. The EU and the US have also the biggest bilateral trading and investment relationship that exists in the world today. Transatlantic flows of trade and investment amount to around 1 billion US dollars a day, and, jointly, our global trade accounts for almost 40% of world trade. Around 7 million American jobs are supported directly or indirectly by EU companies, and the figure is roughly the same for European jobs depending on US firms. In view of these solid facts, it is evident that by working together, the US and the EU can promote their common goals and interests in the world much more effectively.
In its Security strategy of December 2003, the European Union has stated that the Transatlantic relationship is irreplaceable, and that, acting together, the EU and the US can be a formidable force for good in the world. Nothing could be truer: Europe and America need each other, in a balanced and effective partnership, to deal with the threats and challenges of our complex world.
Yesterday, we commemorated the tragic events of 9/11, which is why I want to mention the field of the fight against terrorism in particular as one of the fields where transatlantic cooperation is natural and important. The European Security strategy indeed identifies terrorism as one of the major threats to peace and security of our peoples, as does the American National security strategy. 9/11 has changed the world, and our perception of the terrorist threat. Like the US, Europe takes the fight against terrorism very seriously, and we are working very hard to find the right balance between security, and the safeguarding of human rights, of our common values and principles of civil liberties and freedom. We must indeed be sure that in combating terrorism, we do not ourselves damage our democratic and legal institutions. Human rights and humanitarian standards have to be maintained while we combat terrorism. The existence of secret detention facilities, or the secret detention of persons in a legal vacuum, are not in conformity with international humanitarian law, and that is why we Europeans were profoundly troubled at the rumours, at the beginning of last year, of the existence of secret detention centres on European territories. It is reassuring that the US administration is now making efforts to address these issues, and is in particular working to close down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. It is indeed important to hold up our common values in the fight against terrorism.
Today, our transatlantic relations are in a very good shape, in much better shape than a few years ago, when we fell out about the war in Iraq. I am happy and proud that an important stage in the relaunching of transatlantic relations, in the recent past, took place when Luxembourg held the Presidency of the European Union, during the first semester of 2005, and this gives me an opportunity to illustrate another aspect of Luxembourg’s role inside the European Union. As every Member State, Luxembourg regularly holds the Presidency of the Union, chairing all the relevant work at all levels, from the European Council meetings of the leaders down to the working level and setting the agenda of the works of the Council during those six months.
President Bush started his second Presidential mandate with a visit to Europe, where he met, as the first US President ever, with the leaders of all EU Member States, as well as with the heads of the EU institutions. That was in February 2005, and Luxembourg worked a lot to make this meeting as successful as possible for both sides, which I think we managed to do. The European Union very much appreciated this gesture of outreach by President Bush. I myself met my colleague, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at several occasions during those six Presidency months, and it was during these meetings that we had the occasion to review transatlantic cooperation across the board. Together, we also prepared the traditional EU – US summit of June 2005, which gave the transatlantic relationship a new impetus in a large number of fields and set important orientations for our future cooperation. In April this year, the success of the 2007 Summit confirmed that 2005 had been a turning point in our relationship. After months of only talking about transatlantic relations, we finally reverted to doing transatlantic relations, to concrete cooperation in many fields to pursue our common goals and defend our common values.
The EU and the US have indeed a very wide joint agenda. Let me mention only a few examples: the fight against poverty; the promotion of human rights and democratisation ; the prevention of conflict; the fight against terrorism and proliferation; or the economic and trade liberalization. Over the last few years, our relationship has been transformed into an issues-driven cooperation, with a record of fruitful coordinated actions in different parts of the world.
I am happy that the US administration today recognizes Europe as a partner, who assumes its part of international responsibilities. I know that from the outside, it is not always easy to understand the European Union and its workings – after all, it is a coordination of 27 States, a heavy machine, with a very original way to function. There are internal hick-ups, once and again, and we are currently striving to reach agreement on a new treaty to further deepen our integration. The world is constantly asking for more Europe, to contribute to peace and security worldwide, and Europe is willing and ready to take up this responsibility. It is therefore also in this respect, essential, that we soon reach agreement on a new treaty, because that treaty will contain new and more efficient instruments for the EU’s foreign and security policy.
Dear students,
I hope that I have managed, in these few minutes, to give you a sense of how intrinsically Luxembourg’s policies, in every field, and in particular in foreign relations, as that is of my competence, are linked to European policies, how closely Luxembourg and the European Union are intertwined. The European Union’s common positions in the field of external relations are the basis of the Luxembourg foreign policy, and we are proud and happy to contribute to the definition of these positions in our everyday work as Member State inside the Council of the EU. I also hope that I have been able to convey how the European Union has, over the last years, become a world player that it is willing to take its responsibilities on the global scene, in cooperation and coordination with our partners, and that we increasingly have the instruments to deliver on this commitment.
In Luxembourg, you will breathe European air during all of your stay, and I truly hope that your time here will give you a deeper insight into the realities of Europe and a better understanding of what it means for a small country, with its national identity and particularities, to be part of a larger Union that aims for a global role.
Thank you for your attention. I will be happy to answer all questions that you might have and I wish you a wonderful time in Luxembourg!