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Annalena Baerbock shortly before departure for Paris: There she meets her French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday morning
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
At the start of her inaugural trip to Europe, the new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock emphasized the reliability of German foreign policy and insisted on basic values such as the rule of law. "Germany has no more important interest than a strong and united Europe," said the Green politician on Wednesday evening at the beginning of her inaugural trip to Paris, Brussels and Warsaw. "The basis for this is always to think into the perspective and history of the other, especially when it comes to controversial issues."
The prerequisite for this is "that we, as the EU, take our basic values seriously and enforce the rules that we have given ourselves together," said Baerbock. "Especially when it comes to the rule of law and human rights, we cannot allow Europe's foundations to crumble," she said, without mentioning countries like Hungary or Poland. If France took over the EU Council Presidency in January, it could count on German support to make Europe more sovereign and capable of acting.
In the EU there has been a dispute with the governments of Hungary and Poland for years because some of them do not comply with EU law.
Critics accuse Warsaw and Budapest of influencing the judiciary contrary to EU standards.
Poland's national-conservative PiS government is restructuring the judicial system.
The EU Commission has opened infringement proceedings against the government in Warsaw because of the reforms.
Baerbock's schedule for the coming days
Baerbock will first meet her French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris on Thursday morning.
Then she wants to travel to Brussels and meet EU foreign affairs officer Josep Borrell and then NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for a meeting there at lunchtime.
On Friday, Baerbock is flying to Warsaw to meet her Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau.
At the beginning of the trip, the Foreign Minister emphasized: “In Paris, Brussels and Warsaw my first message will be: Our partners in the European Union can rely on the new Federal Government from day one. Europe is the linchpin of our foreign policy. «During her inaugural visits, she says, above all, she wants to listen to her closest partners. "We will not pursue our ideas and interests over the heads of our neighbors, and certainly not at their expense."
From day one, she will give international climate policy "the place it deserves on the diplomatic agenda: right at the top," Baerbock continued.
The most important task of diplomacy is to prevent crises, contain them and solve them as best as possible.
"And no crisis is more threatening for the future of mankind than the climate crisis." She also wants to talk to the European partners about "how we can strengthen our climate partnerships with other regions of the world".
The climate crisis does not stop at borders.
aar / dpa / AFP
