In a European Parliament plenary debate this morning on the EU's external action, two GUE/NGL MEPs have criticised the current approach taken on common foreign, security, and defence policies.

German MEP Sabine Lösing commented: “In this report, the EU's military dimension is alluded to as one of the EU's strengths, but we must remove this military aspect. If we are talking about instruments in the realm of security and defence policy we need to look at trade and humanitarian and development policy aid and how they can be effectively linked to each other.

“The European Development Fund's so-called 'African Peace Facility' is actually being used to fund military actions in Somalia and other countries.”

Spanish MEP Willy Meyer said: “We need a different sort of policy that concentrates on people. Having security subordinate to American policy has certainly got us nowhere. We need to lead in the world with a different policy: a policy of disarmament, a policy of peace, a policy of overcoming conflicts and preventing them.

“Obama came to Brussels last week and he gave orders to deploy NATO forces around Russia; this is a big mistake.”

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:
Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20
European United Left / Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group