MEP Costas Mavridis (DIKO, S&D) spoke at a high-level conference on European Defence and Security held at the European Parliament in Brussels. The conference was attended by the President of the European Parliament, the European Commissioner for Defence and Space, EU officials, military experts and a large audience.
In his intervention, Mr. Mavridis explained that the orientation of European Defense and Security should not focus on addressing a threat, such as Russia, but we must primarily determine what it is that we, as the EU, must defend and continued: “As an elected representative of European citizens, I expect that Eurodefense will defend our values, our societies, our democracies and to be more clear, I expect a Eurodefense that will defend the external borders and internal security of the European Union”. Subsequently, the Cypriot MEP referred to the role of Turkey, raising several questions: “Is Turkey part of our cultural space? Does it share the same values as us, as it illegally occupies EU territory in Cyprus and pursues an expansionist neo-Ottoman policy more broadly?” And he pointed out that those who argue that we need Turkey to counter the Russian threat do not answer the above questions because they do not place collective European defense as a priority.
Mr. Mavridis then referred to the fragmentation of the European armaments industry, and the need for a unified approach with connectivity of production and know-how, but as he explained, "based on the prevailing perception, as demonstrated through the SAFE Regulation, fragmentation continues with separate armed forces per state in the EU only", while he himself proposed the parallel undertaking of joint missions, such as the protection of the EU's external borders by strengthening and modernizing FRONTEX or another similar organization.
MEP Press Office
