After listing the progress of European construction, in particular the emergence of a security and defence strategy, Portugal’s Minister for Defence Nuno Severiano Teixeira sets out the priorities for his country’s EU presidency–CFSP/ESDP–stressing that, to move forward, the EU must shoulder its responsibilities and develop its military dimension.
The Arguments for European Defence
The attacks on 11 September 2001 marked a strategic turning-point on the international stage. They not only exposed the threat, hidden up to then, but also forced the United States to change its strategic priorities, with critical long-term effects on the evolution of international politics.
The attacks in Madrid and London tragically confirmed that the threat posed by pan-Islamic terrorist networks was concentrated against Western democracies and rendered crucial a response from European countries and the European Union (EU) to the needs arising from the new strategic situation.
This response, which no politician could pretend is not urgent, implies the assignment of a new strategic priority not only to national internal defence and security, but also to the process of European construction.
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