Von der Leyen calls in annual speech for establishment of European Security Council
The European Union will soon have to become independent and take care of its own security. That says Ursula von der Leyen, chairwoman of the European Commission. In her annual speech, she calls for the establishment of a European Security Council.
The EU, together with countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Ukraine, should be members of this newly to be established Security Council. The council should exist alongside NATO, which has recently been struggling with the question of how to respond to attacks from Russia.
Participating countries should also offer each other a security guarantee comparable to Article 5 of NATO, which states that an attack on one of the members is considered an attack on all members.
Livestream speech Von der Leyen
Watch here live the annual speech of Ursula von der Leyen, chairwoman of the European Commission.
Plans for a European cooperation on security are not new. Policymakers in the EU have long pointed to its importance.
According to Von der Leyen, the European Security Council is needed because of the new reality. She refers to increasing Russian provocations with hybrid attacks on countries in the EU. Also, the doubt sown by American President Trump about NATO is a reason for the EU to work on its own security structure, independent of American support.
Limiting migration
In her speech, Von der Leyen also comes with proposals to strengthen the European external borders. In addition, she wants legislation that makes it easier to return large groups of migrants without asylum procedures to the country they came from.
When tens of thousands of migrants managed to enter the Spanish exclave Ceuta from Morocco last summer, the division on this issue among European countries was great. European countries feared that migrants would travel on, but that ultimately did not happen.
According to Von der Leyen, it exposed that measures must be taken for such situations. Therefore, she wants a new 'toolbox' that the EU can use to deal with emergencies like the crisis in Ceuta.
Social media ban and heat
Besides security and migration, Von der Leyen also spoke about the heat. She calls last summer, with extreme temperatures and heat waves, "the summer of truth." Therefore, she comes with a heat wave plan, which among other things states that she wants to map one hundred areas vulnerable to heat. It should become clear what risks these places face during periods of heat.
The chairwoman of the European Commission also announces in her speech that there will be a social media ban for children younger than 15 years. It was already clear earlier that the cabinet supports a European age limit for social media.