4th March, 2025
Press Release: Momentum at Paris Summit on Defence and Security
Ministers, MEPs and Party leaders gathered today at the Paris Summit on “Democracy and Liberties”, at the invitation of former French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal. The following is the text of the intervention, entitled “The role of a neutral EU country in a multilateral Security system”, by Momentum Chairperson, Arnold Cassola.
“Malta is a constitutionally neutral country. We are not alone. Austria and Ireland come to mind. Our party, Momentum, believes that being neutral does not mean being indifferent to the suffering of others. We subscribe to what an Irish Minister recently declared: Being militarily neutral does not mean being politically neutral. We do not like the Von der Leyen wording of “Rearm Europe”. We much prefer “A Defence and Security policy for Europe”.
Reality is that Donald Trump is not only discarding Ukraine… he is also discarding the USA’s European allies. Therefore bolstering Defence and Security in Europe is a necessary deterrent. Let us not, however, turn this into a race and competition between single European states on who arms themselves most. Instead, EU member states should rationalise on their single enormous present weapons expenses and work towards a common European defence and security project, which aims at defence and not attack, always under the aegis of the UN or the EU Partnership for Peace.
As a political party from a small neutral country, we refute the Trump logic that “might is right”. If we abandon Ukraine, we would be giving the go ahead to China to annex Taiwan, to Nethanyahu to take over Gaza, etc. This is unacceptable. We must therefore defend the inalienable right to territorial integrity, self determination and the respect of basic human rights, as well as the respect for the International Criminal Court decisions, always and everywhere.
And we must be consistent in our behaviour: what is valid for Ukraine is valid for Gaza, and is valid for all of us.
True Equality and Justice demands that from us all”.
