European Parliament
A7-0010/2012
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski,
rapporteur.
Mr President, I am glad that Lady Ashton decided to participate in this debate. It is an honour for us and especially important because the EEAS has now been in action for a year and the time has come for the first reviews and summaries of the Service’s existence.
The report was adopted in the Committee on Foreign Affairs in December last year by an overwhelming majority. By allocating such an important topic to the Foreign Affairs Committee, the European Parliament wanted to emphasise that in foreign policy terms BRICS is no longer just a catch phrase coined around trade and growth-related indicators, but that these countries have come of age and started a certain form of foreign policy making. The report goes beyond the individual country-by-country approach when thinking about Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and tries to see in what senses their common points of interest have brought them together.
One such common item is the feeling of marginalisation on the global level, especially when it comes to BRICS participation in the key institutions of global economic and financial governance. That is why the BRICS countries have decided to strengthen their cooperation on political and foreign policy issues. It could be called a mutual support network, but one that can be a convenient fall-back option when the situation requires concerted action.
The report indicates several areas, in particular the number of votes held in the UN Security Council, on Libya, on Syria, on the status of the EU in the UN General Assembly and others, like recently in Durban on climate change, which show that when the foreign policy objectives of the BRICS converge they are ready to concert efforts and act jointly. In most cases the BRICS take positions opposed to those of the European Union and they contest our positions and policy.
Are we ready to react and to act? Those countries enjoy – some of them to a special degree, especially democracies like India and Brazil – a privileged relationship with us. At the same time, they will not give the Union the right to speak in the United Nations.
Baroness Ashton, in your report you praise the geographical desk structure of the EEAS as the leading source of advice and briefing on respective countries. The report which I submitted encourages a coordination mechanism within the EEAS which would allow geographical desk officers responsible for particular BRICS countries to exchange and coordinate information and positions in cases where concerted action on our side can be expected. Such cooperation would have added value for you and your officials in devising future strategies. The mechanism I suggest does not require a modification of the current EEAS structure and can be of a purely functional nature. I was told that the first time such coordination took place was in preparation for attending the Foreign Affairs Committee meeting to discuss my report. I am glad to hear that, as it is the best proof that the report has already brought some results. Now, it will be of the utmost importance that this coordination is maintained and developed further and does not become a one-time event in the history of your Service.
The BRICS as a cross-continental foreign policy actor does exist and the ostrich policy of hiding one’s head in the sand, believing that the BRICS will stop existing, will not serve the EU well.

