Europa
“In foreign policy, the term BRICS, referring to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is no longer just a catchphrase coined around trade and growth-related indicators. They have come of age and started a certain form of foreign policy-making. A number of votes held in the UN Security Council shows that where foreign policy objectives of the BRICS converge, they are ready to concert efforts and act jointly. And in most cases, the BRICS’ positions are opposed to the policies and objectives of the EU“, said Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament and author of the BRICS Report.
“The BRICS group, as a cross-continental foreign policy actor, does exist. An ostrich policy of burying our heads in the sand in the hope that the BRICS will simply disappear will definitely not serve the EU“, he added.
By endorsing the Report, the EP is highlighting examples of BRICS coordinating certain aspects of their foreign policies, most notably on the occasion of key international security votes in the UN Security Council (withholding from the vote on the UNSC Resolution onLibya, blocking the resolution onSyriaand the climate agreement inDurban). The Report also recalls the deferring of the process to grant the EU the possibility to act on behalf of all its Member States in the UN General Assembly.
“Are we ready to act and react? Some of those countries, especially developed democracies like Brazil and India, enjoy the status of a privileged relationship with the EU, while denying us at the same time the right to vote in the UN“, said Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Head of the Polish Delegation of the EPP Group.
The EP encourages the EU to create a coordination mechanism within the EEAS which would allow the geographical desk officer responsible for particular BRICS countries to exchange information and coordinate positions in cases where concerted action could be expected from their side too. “Such a mechanism would not require a modification of the current EEAS structure and could be of a purely informal nature”, concluded Jacek Saryusz-Wolski.
Brazil,Russia,IndiaandChinalaunched policy dialogue in 2006 and were joined bySouth Africafive years later. In April 2011, BRICS leaders issued a statement in which they announced closer international cooperation.
