European Union member states will lose their technology-led supremacy unless they are prepared to invest more in innovation and development, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell has told Euronews.
“If you intend to be autonomous, you have to pay your own expenses,” the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs told Euronews Brussels Correspondent Ana Lazaro Bosch in The Global Conversation.
And he said that meant more spending on both defence and technology. "We are certainly not doing enough to maintain our own capacity for action. That's what autonomy means. China has the historical experience of having lost the industrial revolution and having suffered a century of humiliations. And it knows perfectly that technological supremacy is fundamental in the world."
“If you want to live under the protective umbrella of the United States from the military point of view, it's certainly cheaper. But it's also certain that you're dependent. And this is true in terms of technological development, because we are certainly not doing enough to maintain our own capacity for action. That's what autonomy means. China has the historical experience of having lost the industrial revolution and having suffered a century of humiliations. And it knows perfectly that technological supremacy is fundamental in the world. It always has been, but now more than ever. And they are doing everything they can to get it. And we, who’ve had it until now, run the risk of losing it, if we don't invest enough in innovation, in development.”
Borrell also said Europe needs to switch to qualified voting on foreign affairs if it is to punch its weight on the global stage. “I am aware no one is going to declare war if they don’t agree to do so,” he said. “Fortunately, though, we’re not declaring wars: fundamentally we decide on missions to help peace, or on imposing sanctions on those who are violating international laws. Therefore, it shouldn’t be so difficult to do so - not necessarily unanimously. And in this way we’d avoid months of discussions that sometimes come to nothing.”
Source: Euronews
