Foreign Affairs & Defense Policy

General resources about this topic :

External Links :

  • European Parliament

Foreign Affairs Commitee (AFET) : http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/afet/home.html
Security & Defence Sub-Commitee (SEDE) : http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/sede/home.html
Developpement Commitee (DEVE) : http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/deve/home.html

  • European Commission

Foreign affairs and security : https://ec.europa.eu/info/topics/foreign-affairs-and-security-policy_en

  • European Council

Foreign affairs and international relations : http://www2.consilium.europa.eu/en/topics/foreign-affairs-international-relations/
Security and Defence : http://www2.consilium.europa.eu/en/topics/security-defence/

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Next meeting :

Tuesday 12th June - 20PM CEST

Where : French Discord : http://discord.partipirate.org/
Chat channel : #foreignaffairs_defence
Vocal channel : Salon Julia Reda

Summary of the meeting - Tuesday 12th June

Meeting 1 : 12/06/2018 - 20PM

Presents :

  • Aurifex/Etienne
  • ThomasG
  • Macburns
  • Ladislav
  • Marketka
  • Faro

Method proposition : regroup all the national propositions on the european level and see the common points

Links :


https://twitter.com/search?q=%23EUDefence

https://twitter.com/eu_eeas


This first meeting had for goal to define the methodology to build the Foreign Affairs & Defense Policy part of the CEEP.

Method proposition : regroup all the national propositions on the European level and see the common points

The group decided to ask each European pirate parties to respond to those questions :

  • What should be the Pirates’ policy for foreign affairs at European level ?
  • What should be the Pirates’ policy for defense and security at European level ?
  • Has Europe made changes that Pirates agree on since 2014 ?

Subsidiary question if you want a base of discussion :

  • What do you think of the PPDE’s proposal ? (just bellow)
  1. European Foreign Politics

Goal of the European Foreign Politics has to be to avoid crises.

The Focus has to be on avoiding sustainable imbalances by the exchange of goods and services.

  1. European Defence Politics

The use of armed forces for conflict solution has to be the exception.

Before the founding of European Armed Forces there has to be installed a parliamentary reservation for the European Parliament in advance the use of such forces.

Until the installation of this parliamentary reservation the Pirate party refuses the joining of armed forces.

The mission for armed forces has to have clear defined goals. Directly after accomplishing the mission goals the lead responsibility has to be taken over by civil institutions.

If you can’t attend to the meeting please send us the proposals of your members on the Discourse or by mail before our next meeting (if it is possible).

End time : 20:58


Next meeting :

Tuesday 26th June - 20PM CEST

Where : French Discord : http://discord.partipirate.org/ 2
Chat channel : #foreignaffairs_defence
Vocal channel : Salon Julia Reda

Digital communication is now growing to the one of main centres of politics including international politics creating huge problems and opportunities on the way. It is my general opinion that Pirates should concentrate on the more futuristic ideas because we have the most advantage over the traditional parties in these areas and also we have a lot of expertise in those topics.
One of the major problems now is the ease of interference in open societies politics from abroad - even the greatest power in the world has just recently had its presidential election influenced by foreign actors using the internet. This is a serious threat for democracies - because authoritarian societies have means to control the remote influence - just look at the China Great Internet Wall.
I think we should first of all think about ways to defend open democratic societies from this new danger.

Some links:


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Tuesday 26th June - 20PM CEST
Where : French Discord :
Chat channel : #foreignaffairs_defence
Vocal channel : Salon Julia Reda

Switched to mumble due to tech items

Participants:
Marketa Gregorova PPCZ
Etienne Eveline PPFR
Thomas Gaul PPDE

Excused:
xx

Begin: 20h20
End: 20:47h

  1. What was on?

Summary for the last meeting: Foreign Affairs & Defence Policy

The group asks the international coordinators to ask these questions to their party :

What should be the Pirates’ policy for foreign affairs at European level ?

What should be the Pirates’ policy for defense and security at European level ?

Has Europe made changes that Pirates agree on since  2014 ?

Subsidiary question if you want a base of discussion :

What do you think of the PPDE’s proposal ? (just below)


European Foreign Politics

Goal of the European Foreign Politics has to be to avoid crises.
The Focus has to be on avoiding sustainable imbalances by the exchange of goods and services.

European Defence Politics

The use of armed forces for conflict solution has to be the exception.
Before the founding of European Armed Forces there has to be installed a parliamentary reservation for the European Parliament in advance the use of such forces.
Until the installation of this parliamentary reservation the Pirate party refuses the joining of armed forces.
The mission for armed forces has to have clear defined goals. Directly after accomplishing the mission goals the lead responsibility has to be taken over by civil institutions.

If you can’t attend to the meeting please send us the proposals of your members on the Discourse or by mail before our next meeting (if it is possible).

  1. Discussion
    Discussion about the process, creation, activity, participation and possibilities.
    : no news, CZ will deliver later. No news from PPDE.
    No news from PPFR

  2. Next Meeting
    : 10th July - 21h00 CEST

This is the first draft of the Foreign Affaires & Defense Policy Working Group :

1. Foreign Affairs

0.1) General declaration

  1. The Pirate Party believes in the European Union’s ability to create exchanges of ideas, experience and knowledge, both between Europeans and the rest of the world. Sharing information, knowledge and culture brings people closer together and society develops.

  2. Strengthening Europeans’ opportunities to share and tie social ties with each other should be the primary objective of the EU project.

  3. The goal of the European Foreign Affairs policies is to build durable diplomatic relations between the European Union and the other states. Those bilateral relations can be based on cultural, economic or technological exchanges.

  4. The building of the European diplomacy have to respect the protection of rights and the sustainable development.

1.1) International protection of fundamental rights

  1. The European Union must create a protective status for European and international whistleblowers. They must be able to benefit from the right to asylum if there are not European citizens.

  2. The European Union must integrate the protection of the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people as part of its international cooperation policy.

_NB : this already exist but we may accentuate on this aspect because it still necessary to remind people that this protection is not systematic in many countries. _
See : https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/mission-statement_en.pdf

1.2) International Trade Policy
Note : the “International Trade Policy” from the CEEP 2014 can be integrated to this part.

1.2.0) Introduction

  1. Pirates consider the right to privacy and self-determination of the people as self-evident. Those rights need to be respected and promoted in the context of trade agreements.

  2. As part of the European economic diplomacy, the focus has to be on avoiding lasting imbalances in the exchange of goods and services.

  3. We reject multilateral international agreements that force dysfunctional monopolies and patents to the detriment of civil rights and human freedoms.

(Here start the “International Trade Policy” part from CEEP 2014)

1.2.1) Principles for Trade Agreements

  1. Pirates stipulate that in all negotiations of the European Union on trade agreements the following conditions must be met:
  • Stronger participation of the European Parliament;
  • comprehensive access to information and public hearings;
  • respect for self determination and privacy; and
  • the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises must be taken into account.

1.2.2) Stronger participation by the European Parliament

  1. Trade agreements contain political decisions that are important and difficult to change after they are adopted. Therefore, the European Parliament, the only body in the EU that has a direct democratic mandate, should have equal rights to the European Commission when dealing with trade policies.

  2. The European Parliament via its Committee on International Trade (INTA) should participate as an equal partner of the European Commission in negotiations of trade agreements.

1.2.4) Comprehensive access to information and public hearings

  1. All documents concerning the negotiations of trade agreements should be made available to the European Parliament as well as to the public. All negotiations and hearings with stakeholders should be conducted in public. We demand that all results of consultations, especially submissions by stakeholders, must be published promptly and in full.

1.2.5) The interests of small and medium-sized enterprises must be taken into account

  1. At the moment trade agreements mainly take into account the interests of global enterprises, while small and medium-sized companies rarely benefit; SMEs are increasingly ousted from the market. We want to change that.

1.3) Conflicts Resolution

  1. Pirates want to pay special attention to the stabilization of conflict outbreaks and fragile states, as their instability is a source of problems for the entire international community.

1.4) Responsibility of international corporations

  1. The European Union must make it possible to engage the legal responsibility of companies in the event of infringement of European environmental law for their actions on the territory of the Union but also for their actions outside the territory of the EU if in the latter the seat of their parent company is on the territory of the European Union.

2. Defense

2.1) European Armed Force

  1. Before the founding of European Armed Forces there has to be installed a parliamentary reservation for the European Parliament in advance the use of such forces.

  2. Until the installation of this parliamentary reservation the Pirates refuse the joining of armed forces.

2.2) Defense and Technology

2.2.1) Artificial Intelligence

  1. The national armed forces of countries within European Union are not allowed to invest in artificial intelligence research (and associated algorithm) if the purpose of this research is to allow autonomy of decision on the life of a living target.

  2. The Pirates want to promote an international convention that prohibits autonomous combat robots taking their own decisions to use their weapons.

2.2.2) Cyber Defense

  1. Cyberwar is largely without transparency or the possibility of claiming liability.

  2. In accordance with our principles of technical development and transparent conduct of power, we want to work for international conventions bind signatories to openly declare the use of cyber weapons.

  3. This includes the purchase of third-party monitoring programs for the purpose of spying on foreign individuals. We also want signatories to commit themselves not to actively undermine the security of civilian systems.

2.3) Use of weapons

  1. Pirates are striving for more stringent regulation of the world arms trade and banning arms exports to conflict areas.

  2. The European Parliament should have to give its agreement for any weapons exportation out side of the European Union.

  3. We refuse the use of mercenaries and unmarked regular army warriors to diversify or occupy a foreign territory.


Please find in this document more details about the group work : ForeignAffairsDefense_Draft1.pdf (64,5 Ko)

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Next meeting :
23th August - 12h30 - French Discord

Agenda :
Consolidation of the first draft


Foreign Affairs & Defense Policy
Amended Draft

Foreign Affairs Policy

General declaration
The Pirate Party believes in the European Union’s ability to create exchanges of ideas, experience and knowledge, both between Europeans and the rest of the world. Sharing information, knowledge and culture brings people closer together and society develops.

Strengthening Europeans’ opportunities to share and tie social ties with each other should be the primary objective of the EU project.

The goal of the European Foreign Affairs policies is to build durable diplomatic relations between the European Union and the other states. Those bilateral relations can be based on cultural, economic or technological exchanges.

The building of the European diplomacy have to respect the freedom of Internet, the protection of rights and the sustainable development.

International protection of fundamental rights
The European Union must create a protective status for European and international whistleblowers. They must be able to benefit from the right to asylum if they are not European citizens.

The European Union must integrate the protection of the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people as part of its international cooperation policy.

International Trade Policy

Introduction
Pirates consider the right to privacy and self-determination of the people as self-evident. Those rights need to be respected and promoted in the context of trade agreements.
As part of the European economic diplomacy, the focus has to be on avoiding lasting imbalances in the exchange of goods and services.
We reject multilateral international agreements that force dysfunctional monopolies and patents to the detriment of civil rights and human freedoms.

The pirate party wants trade agreements to always protect the personal data of consumers and firms.

Principles for Trade Agreements
PIRATES stipulate that in all negotiations of the European Union on trade agreements the following conditions must be met:

  • Stronger participation of the European Parliament;
  • comprehensive access to information and public hearings;
  • respect for freedom of Internet, social rights, and civil rights and ; sustainable development ;
  • the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises must be taken into account.

Stronger participation by the European Parliament
Trade agreements contain political decisions that are important and difficult to change after they are adopted. Therefore, the European Parliament, the only body in the EU that has a direct democratic mandate, should have equal rights to the European Commission when dealing with trade policies.

The European Parliament via its Committee on International Trade (INTA) should have access to all the negotiation material and a right to observer to negotiation and to make binding remarks to the European Commission.

Comprehensive access to information and public hearings
The Pirates are against secret negotiations.
All documents concerning the negotiations of trade agreements should be made available to the European Parliament as well as to the public. All negotiations and hearings should be conducted in public. We demand that all results of consultations, must be published promptly and in full.

Respect for freedom of Internet, social rights, civil rights and sustainable development
Pirates consider the right to privacy and self-determination of the people as self-evident. Therefore they also need to be respected and promoted in the context of trade agreements.

As these principles apply to all people, the EU has to make sure that trade agreements will not allow their trading partners to breach them.

Trade Agreement shouldn’t forget the social rights of other countries.

All the futur european trade agreement should take into account the respect of the sustainable development. The agreement cannot be ratified if it has a negative impact on the environment.

The interests of small and medium-sized enterprises must be taken into account
At the moment trade agreements mainly take into account the interests of global enterprises, while small and medium-sized companies rarely benefit; SMEs are increasingly ousted from the market. We want to change that.

Responsibility of international corporations
The European Union must make it possible to engage the legal responsibility of companies in the event of infringement of European environmental law for their actions on the territory of the Union but also for their actions outside the territory of the EU if in the latter the seat of their parent company is on the territory of the European Union.

Conflicts Resolution
Pirates want to pay special attention to the stabilization of conflict outbreaks and fragile states, as their instability is a source of problems for the entire international community.
Conflicts resolution have to be base on the respect of the International Law which is the base for a peaceful international community.

Defense Policy

European Armed Force
All the existing european defense activities as well as all the future common activities shall be put under European Parliament control.
Before the founding of European Armed Forces there has to be installed a parliamentary reservation for the European Parliament in advance the use of such forces.
Until the installation of this parliamentary reservation the Pirates refuse the joining of armed forces.

Defense and Technology

Artificial Intelligence
The national armed forces of countries within European Union are not allowed to invest in artificial intelligence research (and associated algorithms) if the purpose of this research is to allow the autonomous decision of killing a target.
The Pirates want to promote an international convention that prohibits autonomous combat robots taking their own decisions to use their weapons.

Cyber Defense
Cyberwar is largely without transparency or the possibility of claiming liability.
In accordance with our principles of technical development and transparent conduct of power, we want to work for international conventions bind signatories to openly declare the use of cyber weapons.
This includes the purchase of third-party monitoring programs for the purpose of spying on foreign individuals. We also want signatories to commit themselves not to actively undermine the security of civilian systems.

Use of weapons
Pirates are striving for more stringent regulation of the world arms trade and banning arms exports to conflict areas.
The European Parliament should have to give its agreement for any weapons exportation outside of the European Union.
We refuse the use of mercenaries and unmarked regular army warriors to diversify or occupy a foreign territory.
Pirates consider that surveillance and censorship technology are weapons that have to be included in the restriction of trading.

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Not sure if I can make it, so at least briefly here:

  • Wrt. foreign affairs and trade, I would emphasise the enviromental agenda stronger and more explicitly.
  • Wrt. the “killing robots”: the formulation should somehow include banning also buying such technology from abroad. (I know that it is somehow implicitly following from the second paragraph, but it should be made very clear that we want to avoid situation when we ban such research in the EU but without the international convention in force, when the member states could not research, but could buy it e.g. from the US or Israel.)
    I suggest including embargo on companies researching or (re-)selling such tech.
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