Bogdan Klich (Indlæg)

Mister President! Ministers! Dear colleagues! It is really a great pleasure to be here and to address such a distinguished Nordic Council audience as a representative of the Polish Parliament. In Warsaw we still keep in mind the recent visit of the delegation of the Nordic Council. We perceive that it opened a new chapter in our bilateral relations. Those relations should be enhanced, deepened and have a new, long-term perspective. Why not introduce inter-regional cooperation between the Nordic Council and the Visegrád Group? It would make it easier to meet the expectations of our citizens and to face the challenges that we are jointly facing right now in Europe. Security is one of them.

In December there will be a meeting of the European Council devoted to the problems of the future of the CSDP. The CSDP is still far from reaching its full potential in the area of security and defence. So far, the CSDP missions and operations have clearly demonstrated that there are situations in which the EU is able to deal with crises – politically and militarily – but there are also situations in which the EU is not able to do that. Therefore, the CSDP as a tool should offer us more opportunities to act, for instance more planning and conduct capabilities as well as a better civilian–military coordination. Cooperation with non-EU countries is crucial for our crisis management capacity.

The CSDP doesn’t need any new institutions, but instead a political will, as well as a new impulse, such as nine years ago when the European Security Strategy and the first CSDP mission, Althea, were launched. This impulse should lead us to deepened cooperation also with our partners at all levels, political, planning, operational on the ground and the development of capabilities. It refers also to the relationship between NATO and the Nordic Council.

The utility of NATO will be dependent on our readiness to reach consensus over the implementation of the three essential core tasks of the new Strategic Concept, namely collective defence, crisis management and cooperative security. Cooperative security is the model of relationship between the Alliance and its partners not belonging to the NATO family.

Collective defence and deterrence are still fundamental to many members, and their expectations should be met. We don’t understand it in cold war terms. The logic is rather as follows: When assuming new roles, NATO should keep the ability to defend its members. In other words, we are ready to accept to extend NATO as a collective security organisation if the collective defence function is preserved. That is why we, along with three other Baltic States, are hosting the first NRF exercise – Steadfast Jazz – based on the Article 5 scenario. Such exercises should be conducted on a regular basis.

On the other hand, shrinking defence budgets could dramatically diminish military effectiveness of the Alliance. We should avoid that at all costs. Multinational approaches may be a solution. Smart Defence and the EU Pooling and Sharing programmes are steps in the right direction. These circumstances create a larger room for cooperation with our neighbours, basically the countries belonging to the Nordic Council and other members of the EU and NATO.