Activities of Michal ŠIMEČKA related to 2021/2232(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
The EU and the security challenges in the Indo-Pacific (debate)
The EU and the security challenges in the Indo-Pacific (debate)
Amendments (27)
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the recently adopted EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo- Pacific, which is based on a principled engagement with a long-term perspective, reflects a deep evolution in the way the EU looks at its interests, the opportunities, and challenges in the region and the potential role it can play; whereas building strong relations and security cooperation with Indo-Pacific regional organisations and countries is central to the strategy;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas in recent years the dynamics in the region have given rise to intense geopolitical tensions and competition, mirrored in an increase in military spending and a more aggressive rhetoric, thereby calling into question the rules-based international order; whereas a new centre of global competition has therefore evolved in the Indo-Pacific region; whereas there is no overarching regional security order to mitigate the associated challenges; whereas such dynamics represent serious threats to stability and security in the region and beyond, impacting directly the EU’s strategic interests as a key political and economic partner of the countries in the region; whereas the EU is committed to security, peace and, international law, and human rights;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas China’s rapid military build-up, coupled with its increasingly assertive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region and its military activities in the East and South China Seas, as well as its deliberate and repetitive violations of Taiwan’s air defence identification zone and its increasingly aggressive rhetoric and media campaigns, are leading to rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, which calls for a scenario-based ready-to-act plan;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas the region has an increasing impact on the global system and whereas the ideological struggle in the region between authoritarianism and democracy has the potential to sway the outcome of equivalent struggles worldwide, including in the vicinity of the European Union;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the recently adopted EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo- Pacific; recognises the added value of the strategy as the first foundation stone of the EU’s united approach to the region, and praises the inclusive and multifaceted nature of the strategy and the inclusion of security and defence as one of its seven priority areas; calls for the EU to use the strategy as a tool to effectively assert its presence and influence in the region through furthering strategic ties and deepening cooperation on security- and defence-related matters with regional like- minded countries and organisations; believes that increased value-based EU engagement in the region would contribute to regional security, and help overcome regional tensions and create more balanced relations among regional players; recalls that the strategy is a Team Europe project and that bilateral arrangements between Member States and Indo-Pacific countries that go against the Team Europe approach can harm the objectives of the shared strategy;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Highlights the need to safeguard EU unity as a pre-condition to achieve the EU’s ambition of open strategic sovereigntautonomy amid the increasing competition between the United States and China; recalls that the EU’s unified approach must be underpinned by a pragmatic and principled foreign and security policy and more effective foreign-policy decision-making at the EU-level, specifically through a transition to qualified majority voting;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Highlights the need to work closer together with like-minded countries in the region and to coordinate closer with other liberal democracies on common regional strategies, especially in the context of an increasingly assertive and aggressive China; argues that the EU’s strategy in the region needs to constantly adapt to the rapidly changing power balance and should be firmly anchored in European values;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls onUrges the EU to make use of its reputation as a credible and reliable actor amid the growing geopolitical competition between global and regional powers in the Indo-Pacific; recalls that the added value of EU engagement in the Indo-Pacific lies in its comprehensive range of civilian and military assistance measures, including well developed non-military contributions; recalls that the EU has a vast network of diplomatic assets to facilitate dialogue on conflict-resolution, legal solutions and expertise in setting up confidence-building measures; calls on the EU to closer link its contributions to countries in the region and its diplomacy efforts to its values and interests;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Expresses deep concerns aboutCondemns China’s rapid military build-up, including its test of a hypersonic missile, and its increasingly assertive behaviour, which aims, among other things, to advance its territorial claims in the East and South China Seas; equally condemns China’s diplomacy of intimidation towards the EU and EU Member States; highlights that security hotspots and unresolved issues, such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s nuclear programme, the recent China-India border standoffs, the crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong, and threats posed by China to the territorial integrity of Taiwan, exert further strain on regional security and stability; highlights that the EU’s approach towards China must be unified, pragmatic, multifaceted and principled, including cooperating on issues of shared interesglobal impact, such as climate change, on the one hand, and competing when it comes to providing economic, political and strategic alternatives to third countries, and confronting and sanctioning China on matters where our respective views diverge substantially, on the other hand;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Highlights the fundamental role that connectivity plays in the geopolitical relations of the EU and its Member States, and welcomes the announcement by Commission President von der Leyen to present the EU’s global gateway strategy; calls for an urgent democratic-driven alternative to Chinese connectivity strategy in the region.
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Believes that the ongoing process of drafting the EU’s Strategic Compass should identify the Indo-Pacific as a region of key strategic interest for the EU, while also identifying the required capabilities and evaluating conflict potentials;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Stresses that enhancing existing partnerships with regional actors and building new ones is a key feature of the strategy; highlights that priority areas for cooperation should include capacity- building, hybrid threats, non-cybersecurity, non-traditional security challenges, non- proliferation, disarmament and crisis response;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Highlights the longstanding cooperation between the EU and ASEAN on security and defence matters, and welcomes the recent upgrade of bilateral relations to a strategic partnership; reiterates its strong commitment to support ASEAN’s centrality, neutrality and inclusive multilateral architecture; calls for the EU to anchor and extend its presence in the region by deepening cooperation with ASEAN and its members; invites the EU and ASEAN to identify ways to involve the EU in the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus and in the East Asia Summit; underlines the fundamental role of the parliamentary dimension for strengthening democracy in the region, and encourages, therefore, the establishment of an EU- ASEAN Parliamentary Assembly and more numerous and regular parliamentary exchanges and missions to the region;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls for the EU to strengthen its dialogue with NATO’s four Asia-Pacific partners, namely Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand, with a view to enhancing mutual situational awareness on security developments in the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions; invites NATO to use its 2030 reflection process to enhance cooperation with its partners in order to defend shared values, consolidate democracy in the region, bolster resilience and uphold the international rules-based order, while ensuring greater consistency between policies on China;
Amendment 193 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Welcomes the well established cooperation between the EU and Japan in the area of security and defence, and urges both partners to further advance the strategic partnership; calls for both partners to enhance cooperation in the area of maritime security and to further develop cooperation within the framework of the common security and defence policy (CSDP) in areas such as intelligence and, capacity-building, and cybersecurity;
Amendment 222 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Welcomes the positive role Taiwan plays in fostering peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region and strongly supports its democratic path;
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Calls for the EU and its Members States to step-up their own maritime capacities in the region in a coordinated way, including by exploring ways to ensure a permanent European naval presence in the Indian Ocean; stresses the need to increase the EU’s capacity as an effective maritime security provider; highlights the fact that France is the only Member State with a permanent military presence in the Indian Ocean; welcomes the fact that the Netherlands and Germany have sent frigates to the region; underlines that more suchjoint EU-level naval missions will be needed in the future; welcomes the joint naval exercises that EUNAFOR Atalanta has thus far undertaken with partner countries, and calls for the EU to consider expanding its geographical scope deeper into the Indian Ocean; invites the EU to establish a maritime area of interest in the Indo- Pacific with a view to extending its Coordinated Maritime Presences concept, building on the Member States’ individual assets;
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6
Subheading 6
Amendment 263 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Underlines the importance of information and cybersecurity as an element of the critical infrastructure of the global economy and for protecting democracies from disinformation and malicious attacks; calls on the European Union and NATO to adjust their security strategy to account for cyber- and hybrid attacks originated in the region and targeted at the Union or its Member States and to prepare adequate and proportionate diplomatic and, when needed, cyber- and military responses to such attacks;
Amendment 270 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27 a. Highlights that the digital transformation has an increasing impact on the structure of the international system and that digital competitiveness will increasingly become a prerequisite for influence on the international scene; cautions that international standard- setting and breakthrough innovations in frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 5G and 6G are increasingly part of a global competition for technological supremacy in which China is significantly invested; urges the European Union to deepen its coordination with technologically- advanced democracies in the region for setting global technological standards and influencing the development of a future global Alliance of Tech Democracies; argues furthermore that this alliance should be underpinned by democratic values, the rule of law, individual rights and freedoms, and the preservation of the rules-based international system;
Amendment 281 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Underlines the growing importance of the space dimension of international cooperation and security; underlines the need to ensure the security of the global internet infrastructure, including undersea cables;
Amendment 282 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30 a. Stresses that critical technologies such as 5G and 6G components, microchips, semiconductors, and rare earth metals are of strategic importance to the EU and its digital future; argues for strict requirements, both political and technical, for purchasing such technologies from non-democratic states in the region such as China; calls for closer cooperation with democratic producers of such technologies in the region and for a coordinated, European- wide strategic approach to the region with a view to secure supplies of critical technology and materials and strengthen democratic partners’ ability to produce them;
Amendment 285 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30 a. Highlights the importance of continuous cooperation between the EU and Indo-Pacific countries in ensuring an effective multilateral response to the COVID-19 and future global health crisis, particularly securing global production and access to vaccines;
Amendment 291 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Highlights that the fight against violent extremism and propaganda is of shared interest to the EU and Indo-Pacific countries; highlights the need to further promote cooperation between Europol and Aseanapol and between Europol and national law enforcement agencies to facilitate exchanges of good practices and expertise in key areas of interest, such as counter-terrorism, fighting transnational crime, human trafficking and migrant smuggling;
Amendment 292 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31 a. Identifies fake news, fake science, disinformation, and election interference as direct threats to democracy and democratic mechanisms, exponentially capacitated by social media and technological development; calls for an increased focus on countering such threats in the democracies of the region and sanctioning such attacks on European democracy emanating from the region;
Amendment 294 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31 a. Calls for closer engagement with the Indo-Pacific countries in addressing security challenges emanating from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, including terrorism, drug and human trafficking, addressing humanitarian crisis and ensuring rights and safety of all Afghan people;
Amendment 312 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33 a (new)
Paragraph 33 a (new)
33 a. Highlights that corruption is a prevailing challenge faced by many Indo- Pacific countries, which prevents development and foreign investments, including from the EU, but also provides an opportunity for closer cooperation and transfer of the EU anti-corruption measures;