Traduction de «Affaires extérieures » (Français → Anglais) :

30. Calls for a closer link between EU policies on external affairs and on climate action; is convinced that climate change should be given high significance on the EU’s external action agenda; and therefore urges the EU to speak with one voice to maintain its leading role in the next negotiations and to be represented in the High-level segment of COP-16 by the President of the Commission, Mr Barroso, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Baroness Ashton, and the Commissioner for Climate Action, Ms Hedegaard;

– the High Representative should, at the same time, have the role of conducting the CFSP (initiative and execution), especially in terms of representing the Union in contacts with third parties and in international forums; here, he should also take on the role currently held by the President-in-Office of the Foreign Affairs Council (in principle, the foreign minister of the Member State holding the presidency). He should also have a representative role with regard to external action as a whole or areas of that action other than the CFSP, but in such cases he will be under the authority of the Commission President and will be subject to ...[+++]the decisions of the Commission as a whole for those other aspects of external action.

Secondly, we need a European Foreign Minister and a European External Affairs Service appointed from among the Council, the Commission and the Member States, with the foreign minister not to be an ornament to the EU, but its mouthpiece; someone capable of taking decisions and backed up by the common political will of the capitals when things get tough.

The creation of a Foreign Minister of the Union, merging the positions of the High Representative for the CFSP and the Commissioner for External Relations under the so-called 'double hat', could be an important step towards a more coordinated European foreign policy, although the preservation of the unanimity principle in CFSP greatly hampers the minister's room for manoeuvre.

(30) Economic globalisation means that environmental action is increasingly needed at international level, including on transport policies, requiring new responses from the Community linked to policy related to trade, development and external affairs enabling sustainable development to be pursued in other countries.

Additional information is available on the website of the Directorates-General for Taxation and Customs Union (international customs cooperation agreements) and External Relations (relations of the EU with the Republic of Korea) of the European Commission.