Check against delivery! 

Good morning, 

We gather here today for the 2nd edition of the Schuman Forum.  

Last year, it was a great success. The Forum is growing. 

We have a wider participation: this year, we have over 500 participants coming from 70 partners around the world – countries, international and regional organisations - and over 100 think tanks from across the world. 

We are very happy to receive here in Brussels, at the Schuman Forum, so many people, so many friends. 

The broader agenda we are putting on the table allows us to discuss and exchange on issues such as cybersecurity – today, everybody is talking about it -, defence – our defence capabilities, and the challenges that we have to face - counter terrorism and hybrid threats.  

These are [cross-cutting] issues but then there are the dramatic issues that we have to discuss about - the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza with this incredible and unacceptable toll of people being killed every day, [and] the electoral process in Latin America - many hot issues around the world that I am sure the participants will discuss.  

This growing number of participants explains the magnitude of the security threats that we face.  

The reality is that no one can deal with these threats alone. 

The security and defence agendas of the European Union and our partners are increasingly linked. One problem is linked [to] another.  

The hotspots in the world are being linked by a chain of casualties and counteractions.  

Today, we are going to do three thing.  

We are going to listen to each other, something that does not happen very often. Normally, people come, deliver their speech and leave. Here, it is a moment in which we will stay listening [to] each other.  

Second, [assess] our common evaluation of the threats.  

And third, to discuss ways to tackle these threats together. This is the real partnership - listening and acting together. 

As [the] European Union, we have tools and frameworks to do so. We do a lot, and maybe what we do is not sufficiently known.  

Let me put in value what we are doing around the world.  

We have around 80 dialogues and consultations on peace, security and defence with over 40 partners. 80 structural permanent dialogues on peace and security with 40 partners.  

We provide military support to over 20 countries through our European Peace Facility - in Africa, in South Caucasus, [or] in the Middle East. 20 partners are working with us – or we are working with them – in order to support peace and security.  

Our CSDP missions and operations deliver to our partners from Ukraine to Mozambique - a lot of support. 

Our training mission in Ukraine [EUMAM Ukraine] has trained over 50,000 soldiers and we want to raise the level of ambition, reaching many more.  

We have a training Mission in Mozambique [EUTM Mozambique] that has trained 11 eleven companies. And thanks to that, I think the security situation in this country has improved quite a lot.  

Certainly, we cannot be satisfied – we should never be satisfied – because we need to do more, to do better, and to do [it] together.  

We want to offer new forms of cooperation to our partners.  

Only between last week and this week, and today, we have signed two Security and Defence Partnerships. One with Moldova last week, and yesterday another one with Norway.  

And others are in preparation, and I hope will be signed before the summer. 

This is what we are doing.

This meeting is about doing more because this is only the beginning. We are working on more partnerships. We are working on linking with more people. 

We have to explain and listen to each other which are our concerns, which are our priorities - they are not always the same, we have to understand which are the priorities of our partners in order to go together, make these priorities a real issue, not only for them but also for us.  

All in all, the European Union wants to strengthen its role as a security provider. We are a security provider with a navy mission in the Red Sea [EUNAVFOR ASPIDES], in the Horn of Africa [EUNAVFOR ATALANTA], [or] in the Gulf of Guinea. 

And we want to become a better partner. A better partner, to increase global security. Together. 

Together with the people who came here to this Schuman Forum. I thank them a lot. 

Thank you. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-257388