This week, my speech in plenary was about the EU’s “strategic autonomy”.

Those EU member states that like to use this term are unfortunately often the same that undermine EU unity through national actions:

France, for example, continues to back Haftar in Libya, while the EU supports efforts to bring about peace (e.g. with the Berlin Conference) and has set up a mission to enforce the arms embargo against the country.
Italy sends weapons to al-Sisi ignoring the Egyptian dictator’s disastrous record on human rights – and this despite the fact that one of its own citizens, Giulio Regeni, is believed to have fallen victim to Egyptian security forces.
As for Germany, the federal government still supplies Turkey with submarines, even though the Council of the EU has imposed sanctions on Turkish officials over the escalations in the Mediterranean. These submarines could be used against Greece, an EU member state.

I therefore demand that the EU Heads of State outline:

• how they intend to strengthen the EU’s capabilities
• in which areas they want to delegate national sovereignty
• what role they see for the European Parliament in this process

You can watch my speech in plenary here: