Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell upon arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council
Q. Do you have a specific proposal you would like to give the Europeans on how to deal with Turkish after the agreement with Libya, which especially Greece is very angry about?
You know that we already delivered a communication on that. I had the opportunity to talk with both Foreign Affairs ministers of Turkey and Greece in Bratislava. This will be on the agenda today. We will continue talking about that and trying to approach positions.
Q. Learning the language of power: what does that implies in your mind?
Learning the language of power means being able to react using all the tools we have at our disposal, which are many, in order to have a stronger stance in the world.
Q. ¿Confía usted en que haya un acuerdo en esta reunión de Paris, en esta reunión en Francia, sobre el tema de Ucrânia y Russia ?
Esperamos que haya avances. En los últimos días se han producido algunos avances positivos aviso “disengagement of troops, disengagement of warfare,” so we think in this meeting we can continue working and advance on a peaceful and sustainable solution for the Ukrainian conflict which is one of the most important priorities the European Union has to solve.
Q. ¿Cuáles son las principales directivas para los próximos cinco años de su mandato?
Instead of delivering a long speech to my colleagues, I prefer to write a letter to the Foreign Affairs ministers and to the Defence ministers that they have received. There I try to explain which are our main objectives and working methods, trying to increase our unity with a lot of realism in the world we are living in and also developing partnerships because I know that we cannot solve [alone] many of the problems we are facing, from migration to climate change. The letter has been distributed to the members of the Council last week and I suppose you have [seen it] one way or another.
Q. Are we moving away from the principle of unanimity in the Council?
That is not in the agenda today. We will work on that, but not today.
Q. For Ukraine, do you think that the position of France could weaken the position of Ukraine?
No, why do you say so? Europe on this [issue] is completely united.
Q. ¿Teme usted que la posición de los Estados Unidos en estos momentos rompa con lo que ha sido la estabilidad internacional para la resolución de conflictos?
Yo no exageraría. Es evidente que los Estados Unidos tienen actitudes hoy distintas de las que fueran en el pasado con respecto a la alianza atlántica, con respecto a Europa, pero no creo que estemos hablando de romper los equilibrios en las relaciones internacionales
Q. Are the sanctions against Turkey also on the table or is it not to be discussed?
It is not a matter of sanctions today. We just look at what this memorandum means and discuss about the content.
Q. ¿En esta carta que ha enviado usted a sus colegas de exterior, nos puede decir cuales son la directrices para estos cinco años?
Mejor conocen la carta. Seguro que la conocerán de una manera o de otra, porque en vez de hacer un largo discurso, he preferido hacer un texto.
¿Una previa?
Unidad. No podemos pretender ser un actor global si no tenemos una posición común.
Q. Which kind of agreement do you expect today on Libya?
I do not expect an agreement on Libya. We expect to have a position after analysing which is the content of the memorandum of understanding, which has been kept not secret but unknown until a few days ago.
Q. ¿Algún mensaje para Bolivia?
Si, Bolivia es uno de los temas que vamos a plantear. Hemos estado haciendo un intenso trabajo de mediación en estas últimas semanas. Es nuestra delegación de la Unión Europea allí que ha hecho un muy bueno trabajo para llamar a la contención y tratar de evitar la escalada de violencia.
América Latina es uno de los temas que hay que tratar porque toda ella está en una situación mucho más crítica hoy que antes del verano desde Chile hasta Venezuela.
Muchas gracias