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At the recent European conference on global security in Prague (Globsec-24), Commission President urged the participants “to be on guard and refocus attention on security dimension” in national political economies. Modern complex security involves new facets in changing economics and politics, e.g. in “navigating” climate change and “critical technologies”, cybersecurity and other hybrid threats.
The role of Central and Eastern European states
The new reality is that Central Europe is not only geographically at the heart of Europe: it is also politically and strategically central to the EU future. Thus, e.g. in 2023, the biggest investors in this region were not German or French companies, but Czech companies. Among these states, Poland has become one of Europe’s most dynamic economies. Alongside the resilience of most of Central European countries towards Russia’s war in Ukraine, a remarkable fact is that in view of competitiveness, the Western Europe has a lot to learn from the Eastern and central parts.
Thus, during last three years, Europe has discovered another side of this region’s impressive strength: the EU wide solidarity: for example, after two and a half years of Russia-Ukraine military conflict, most member states are aware that peace in the region.
It is quite remarkable, noted the Commission President that the Central and Eastern European states “have warned already years ago about Putin’s intentions: we should have listened better to Central and Eastern Europe”.
References and citations from the Commission press release: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_24_4481
Learning the lessons
The President also underlined the “lessons learned”: for example, in the energy sector the EU-27 member states are presently producing more own energy facilities, i.e. more renewables, more nuclear energy and using energy more efficiently.
In the spheres of the EU-wide digital technologies, semi-conductors and artificial intelligence, the member states are on the path of designing their own national and European solutions. As the matter of fact, “innovation and competitiveness are not only an essential part of European future prosperity, but they are also an essential and crucial part of continental long-term security”.
Another “learned lesson” is that “Europe has overcome its long-standing unwillingness to spend enough on its own defence”; which has to do with the region’s transatlantic cooperation. For example, the importance of the US’ support for Ukraine since the start of this war shall be highly praised as “America has stood up for the freedom of all Europeans”.
This support provides Europeans with both a deep sense of gratitude and a deep sense of responsibility, as protecting Europe is first and foremost the duty of the EU member states. And while NATO must remain the centre of the blocks’ collective defence, the EU member states need a much stronger EU-wide “defense pillar”. The Europeans need to have the means to defend and protect themselves and deter any possible adversaries, the President noted.
As to the military threats, the EU’s leadership is of the opinion that it was not just the issue “to end the fighting as soon as possible”; peaceful solution is a vital prerequisite of making “impossible and unnecessary” any military conflicts in future.
Several challenges appeared since the beginning of this century involving peaceful development, welfare and regional security both in economic and military aspects. Presently, the military conflicts in the Middle East and in Europe, as well as climate mitigation measures, digitalisation, etc. added to these challenges an urgent geopolitical dimension.
General reference to: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_24_4481
Note. More on the GLOBSEC Young Leaders Forum in the following links: https://forum2024.globsec.org/gylf/ and in https://forum2024.globsec.org/agenda/