| EUROPE AND THE MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM 11/03/2010 |
| (2010-03-11) |
| Last updated: 2010-03-12 14:43 EET |
 The European Parliament has endorsed two resolutions that plead for enhancing of the European Union’s strategic autonomy and for defining a strong and efficient foreign, security and defence policy.
MEPs are, on the other hand, determined to make use of their budgetary powers and extensively scrutinise these policies. They believe that, with the Lisbon Treaty in power, broader democratic legitimacy is needed for common security and foreign policy activities. Security debates were bound to tackle, among others, the American missile defence system in Europe. The United States invited Romania to take part in the new version of the project, modified by the Obama administration.
The Romanian MEP Traian Ungureanu, from the EPP group, has managed to overcome the opposition of some of the Socialists and to have an amendment passed, for one of the two resolutions. The amendment stipulates that the new version of the shield must be created through a dialogue on a continental scale, instead of coordination with Russia. The original text read that the project must be developed on the basis of a shared view of European countries and in coordination with Russia. Ungureanu put forth three arguments to support Romania’s right to negotiate an agreement with the US on the missile shield, without constraints related to Russia’s idiosyncrasies.
The first argument was that the project was defensive in nature, therefore it could not target Moscow. Secondly, the Romanian MEP argued, the shield would guarantee the security of Eastern Europe and Western Balkans, and this is again a topic that does not require negotiations with Russia. And last, this is a Romanian-American bilateral agreement and there are no reasons to bring a third party, namely Russia, into the talks. After all, Traian Ungureanu said, if the project had required consultations, these should have involved not only Russia, but other relevant countries in the region as well, such as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Turkey or Bulgaria.
Although Moscow’s criticism against the American missile defence system has softened, Russia still opposes the project, which it views as useless and as jeopardising the continent’s military and geostrategic balance. In turn, the US firmly opposes Russia’s wish to make the endorsement of a new nuclear treaty, which is currently under negotiation, conditional on issues like the missile defence shield, which are still shadowed by dissent.
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2025-04-03
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