Brussels, 17 October 2023
Muchas gracias a todos los mandos militares que han organizado estos ejercicios.
Thanks a lot to all military commanders that have organised this live exercise.
But allow me to start by expressing my condolences to the families of the victims of this awful terrorist attack that happened yesterday in Brussels.
It only shows that the Europeans, we need to step up our security. And defence is part of our security. And today, we are writing a new page in the [history of] European Union defence.
Today, we are holding the first-ever joint European Union military exercise that has [ever] happened. A live military exercise of the European armies together.
This LIVEX – this exercise – involves Member States’ military forces and capabilities, that are conducting manoeuvres based on a concrete operational scenario.
We are taking another step to make the European Union fit to address the crises of today and we have many crises – too many crises and threats – [and] building a security and defence policy and capabilities for the future.
This is what we committed ourselves to in writing the Strategic Compass – and this is what we are delivering today.
Exercising together – live, not theoretically on paper, but live using all these capabilities – enhances the readiness and interoperability of our Member States’ troops. And this boosts the European Union’s ability to act faster to respond to the crises outside the European Union.
It also helps to build a common strategic culture on defence.
I said [it] many times: the Europeans need to build a common strategic culture in order to face together the challenges of the world in which we live.
And I want to thank very much Spain for organising this historic exercise, and to all Member States that are taking part in it. This is a truly European endeavour.
This week – starting today – 2.800 men and women from several European Union Member States will take part in this exercise. They will come from Austria, from Spain, from France, from Hungary, from Ireland, from Italy, from Malta, from Portugal and from Romania. All these countries are contributing with their forces, with 31 military units: maritime, land, space and cyber assets are mobilised in these exercises.
I want to stress that these exercises are important for two reasons.
First, LIVEX is very important to advance towards the creation of the Rapid Deployment Capacity that we decided in the Strategic Compass.
We decided to build a European Union Rapid Deployment Capacity as a robust and scalable military instrument to provide a rapid response outside the European Union. This will be ready in 2025. Today, we are testing in real conditions the deployment of forces outside the European Union.
We are practising an “initial phase of stabilisation”, a scenario in which the Rapid Deployment Capacity could be used.
In practice, this means deploying troops to re-establish order in a destabilised environment.
And in a moment, we will witness the simulation of an amphibious assault to secure an important harbour, after which follow-on forces will be deployed and supported by air assets.
We are here on the Spanish multi-purpose amphibious assault ship ‘Juan Carlos Primero’. The aircraft carrier on which we are right now will play an important role in this exercise.
It will act as the command vessel and is the home to Harrier attack aircraft, Chinooks and other types of helicopters.
Second, this exercise will be a crucial test of our Military Planning and Conduct Capability – what we call the MPCC – which is our [military] headquarters working in Brussels and being in close contact with us today.
The MPCC acts as an Operation Headquarters for the exercise. It will allow to prepare to be ready to act as the preferred European Union Command and Control structure for our missions in the future and for the Rapid Deployment Capacity in particular.
I want to stress the importance of this event. This is the first of many future European Union live exercises. The longest journey starts with a single step. This is the first step of a long travel.
We are planning already the next editions. And I can already announce that the next LIVEX exercise will take place during the second half of 2024 – next year – with the support of Germany in particular.
We also will be testing other scenarios for potential deployment of the Rapid Deployment Capacity, such as the Rescue and Evacuation or support of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
This ship has recently been acting in disaster relief very efficiently.
Unfortunately, these are the scenarios which we have to deal with, and we have to be prepared for doing so. They will be part of our everyday reality, as we see today dramatically in our most direct neighborhood.
As [the] European Union, we need to be ready to act as required to protect our citizens and to contribute to global stability.
For that, we need to exercise together. This will help us to be better prepared to play our role as a defence actor and a global security provider.
I want to thank all the men and women who are devoting their lives to this endeavour.
Thank you very much.
Q&A
Q. High Representative, would such a Rapid Deployment Capacity that you are planning today be of any use for a conflict such as the one we are experiencing right now in the Middle East? What could the European Union eventually do militarily in such a conflict?
We should be able to do a lot. You know, at this moment, the most important thing is to deploy humanitarian assistance to the people in need in Gaza. This will require a lot of logistical capabilities, and this will require also military support and protection. Certainly, we should not intervene in such a fight, but if you want to protect the civilians – if we want to provide support to them – it will need a lot of logistic capacity. This will be one of the missions of this [Rapid] Deployment Capacity that will account for over 4,000 troops, that will be able to act by air, maritime, and land. They will have battlegroups and pre-identified modules, and certainly, strategic enables, as the one that we have here.
Q. Does this not come too late? Is it not just too little?
As I said before, the longest journey starts with a step, the first step. Yes, maybe we could have gotten it quicker. Many, many years ago, the European Union already launched the idea of having this Deployment Capacity. Now, we are making it a reality.
Q. Le quiero hacer dos preguntas. La primera, si nos puede hacer una valoración de la próxima visita a Israel del Presidente Norteamericano Joe Biden. Y la segunda, si nos puede explicar qué problema ha tenido la Unión Europea para fijar una posición común con respecto a Israel después del apoyo sin peros de [la Presidenta de la Comisión europea, Ursula] von der Leyen.
Mire, esta tarde voy a participar por videoconferencia en el Consejo Europeo que reúne a los lideres de los veintisiete países, los jefes de estado y de gobierno que son los que definen la política exterior de la Unión. En la Unión Europea, la política exterior y de seguridad sigue siendo la competencia de los Estados miembros. No es una competencia comunitaria, es una competencia intergubernamental. Y hay dos órganos que dirigen esta política exterior que son el Consejo Europeo – los lideres que se reúnen esta tarde – y el Consejo de ministros [de Asuntos Exteriores] que se reunió en Omán la semana pasada.
La posición es clara: Israel tiene derecho a la defensa, pero esta defensa tiene que desarrollarse en el respeto a las leyes internacionales y en particular las leyes humanitarias – porque también la guerra tiene sus leyes. Eso es lo que hoy los lideres van a reafirmar con el comunicado que ya ha sido trabajado entre ellos.
La visita del Presidente [de los Estados Unidos, Joe] Biden – tengo entendido que antes de ir a Israel va a pasar por Aman en una mini cumbre con el mundo árabe, con Egipto, con el Presidente [de la Autoridad Palestina, Mahmoud] Abbas – es absolutamente necesaria. Porque hemos pedido a Israel que desarrolle sus actividades de defensa en respeto al derecho internacional, que se abran corredores humanitarios a través de los cuales llevar ayuda a Gaza y que se protejan los civiles. Estoy seguro de que este será también el mensaje que trasmitirá el Presidente de Estados Unidos.
Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-247739
Source – EEAS