The last two years have shown all too clearly that, given the crises erupting on Europe’s doorstep and in the world, we can no longer afford to sit back and hope everything will pass.

We can only create security in Europe and defend ourselves against crises by striding forth together also in the sphere of European security and defence policy.

I am thus going to talk to my Italian and French partners, Paolo Gentiloni and Jean-Marc Ayrault, today in Rome about how we can make real progress on this.