Interview Cristina Barrios (Senior Analyst, EUISS) and State Secretary Thomas Silberhorn. European Development Days 2015.

This followed a lab debate entitled ‘Our collective interest? Towards a European strategy for a changing world’ organised by the European Think Tanks Group.

More information on the EDD event can be found here.

What should be the components of a new European Foreign Policy and Security Strategy? EUISS’ Cristina Barrios interviews Thomas Silberhorn, German Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development at the 2015 European Development Days.

In light of recent moves by the EU to review its neighbourhood policy and security and foreign policy strategies, Secretary Silberhorn advocates a global approach that moves away from security in a more narrow military sense, and one that also focuses on conflict prevention and post-conflict management. Only through security and development can we create stability in fragile situations.

Cristina asked how the EU’s ‘Comprehensive Approach to Crisis Management’ can fit within this new security and foreign policy strategy.

Secretary Silberhorn argues we must combine both the internal and external perspective of European affairs. For example, what are the possible impacts of the TTIP on developing countries? How can we can we integrate climate change into a universal development agenda? And how can we deal with migration to European shores while also focusing on addressing the root causes of migration?