 Zodd o'n amser y llyfrans rydyn nhw i lleiwch ein bod, ac i bwysig y sydd ar ôl, arall o'n ceisio yn holl o'r combineidau a'r rhan o'r dwyllteidiau. Byddai'r unrhyw o'r sefydliadau yna wneud o hyn yn holl o'r cyffredinol yma o hawdd hwn yma. A mae oedd yn sefydlu Alexander o'r amser o gyflych am ysgol yma ymylwyr comes see the last few years for perhaps and also maybe drawing a little bit on your obviously close understanding of the country that you know best to give us a new initial over here. Thank you. Good morning. It's a real pleasure to be here. Thanks. I was invited to this discussion, and thank you for the great introduction before I will, of course, not speak on behalf of Austria, but as you say, as they come to an, no I'n dweud o'r cyfrifio'r 50 oed. Fyrdiw'r ffordd, na hwnnw, i'w gwybod am ysgrifennu Ostianol, ac mae'r wyf i ddim yn ddweud o'w ddweud o'r cyfrifio ysgrifennu Ostianol. I thought about how to start a discussion like that in Dublin and I thought the good way to start is with Brexit because I'm sure that you still love to talk about Brexit. One of the 2017 Brexit quotes from Politico was that there are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realized that they are small nations. That was said by the then Danish Finance Minister, Christian Jensen, in a conference on the Topic Road to Brexit. It caused quite a bit of anger from the UK, but of course the context of that conference was entirely different from the discussion today, but I still think it's a good starting point to look at threats to small states because what are small states, what's the definition of a small state? The geo-strategic developments in recent years have fundamentally changed the international order and that has high relevance for the European integration project as a whole and for EU member states individually. We probably can expect in the foreseeable future an international security environment that's characterized by more confrontational multi-polarity. By rivalry and by conflicts between regional and global powers and increasing non-state actor importance as well. Additional global drivers with security or insecurity implications are climate change, demographic developments, economic dynamics and changes and also potentially new disruptive technologies. I would say that was also mentioned before the threat of disintegration of global institutions and the rules-based international system and more broadly multilateralism as a whole, as a concept and a principle of international cooperation. Security challenges, risks and threats for Europe are today more complex, more interconnected and less predictable than before. In our globalized age regional events have immediately global implications and that has all accelerated. So these challenges are faced by EU member states as a whole and no EU member state is capable to address them alone. So close cooperation, integration of efforts is inevitable and viewed against these global trends and challenges. I would say that all states in Europe are small so there are of course differences and capabilities but the challenges are so complex and so interconnected and complex that they beyond the capacity of any European state. Armed attacks in the sort of traditional sense involving massive land, air, sea assets, maybe are considered relatively unlikely today. So current threat perceptions and anticipated hostile actions are expected to occur more on the subconventional level below an international law threshold of an armed conflict which are of course hybrid threats, hybrid actions. And such hybrid opponents will have to be faced both domestically as well as abroad but most importantly of course through international cooperation. Geography matters of course, the location of European states influences threat perceptions and islands threat perceptions will of course differ from the one of Austria or from the one of the Baltic states. But there is a sort of non exhaustive list of threats facing all European states and in no particular order one could say export of extremism and terrorism to Europe. Certainly an Austria threat perception of mass migratory movement is seen very much in the security context. Possible strategic shocks for the economy, for the states and society, increasing hybrid threats by Russia and by other non European powers including on the democratic structures and democratic culture within the EU. But even without hybrid actions from external actors the domestic stability, domestic right wing, left wing populist threats to the democratic structures, to the fabric of society, of course a threat as well. Maybe not so much in the sort of international context but we can see that these threats are faced in many European countries and in many Western democracies so they certainly in my view fit into an overall discussion on threats. Further deterioration of the Ukraine conflict of course. Then very much from the Austrian perspective the proximity of the Western Balkans further stalling, losing steam of Western Balkans approach to the European institutions, to the European structures and standards leading to further fragmentation, instability, more organized crime, increased influence of third states. Then as was mentioned before the deterioration of the transatlantic relationship is of course very much on our minds. But in addition to that sort of increasing confrontational relationship between the US and Russia and increasingly also with China. And what does it mean for Europe in terms of European unity, in terms of European member states being torn in different directions. That's in my perspective a very disconcerting potential there. Then of course I see that also from the Baltic perspective threat perception potentially even immediate military strategic threats to some EU member states and I fully acknowledge that from the Baltic perspective that probably looks entirely different the way it looks from Austria. Then which wasn't touched before if you look at the if you look around Europe we're talking the PC about an arch of instability which goes from basically North Africa, Sahel, Horn of Africa, entire Middle East, Gulf region, corpusus, Ukraine. So we are surrounded by an arch of insecurity and instability with of course tremendous threat and security potential for Europe and currently still inadequate EU conflict prevention and stabilizational capacities. Then I have to say that with my past the breakdown of existing arm control arrangements and certainly in Europe now with the demise of the INF Treaty renewed nuclear arms race including stationing of medium range nuclear missiles in Europe. I consider to be absolutely existential threat and terrible deterioration of at least the potential of it of security in Europe and then and I think that is particularly pertinent for smaller European member states. The disintegration of global institutions and the rules based international system including core values such as human rights upon which the European Union integration project is based. So these challenges for Europe as a whole and for EU member states require a comprehensive and cross cutting security policy approach in which civil and military and external and internal security is closely integrated. This of course exceeds classical security providers such as the military or internal security actors and includes actors and instruments in the diplomatic, military, social integration, development, environmental, financial, infrastructure, education, information, communication and health policy fields. On the security and defense cooperation in the EU as a whole of the last few years I want to pick up briefly on points that were made by Dr Wright before it is a complicated discussion for the EU. There is of course an element of hedging because we all concerned where the transatlantic relationship is going to go. So the idea of building up further more independent EU capacities is widely accepted and the logic behind it is pertinent. I fully acknowledge and we see this in the EU discussions that certainly Eastern European countries but not only are particularly concerned that this could be perceived as negative in Washington and sort of exacerbate a potential trend of disengagement. But I want to bring in as well the perspective certainly of Austrian I believe also of Ireland that the more the EU military and defense cooperation is put into the NATO context the more complicated that actually makes it for countries like mine where NATO cooperation is seen positively but maybe not too closely. So it's a political balancing act which is extremely challenging. So I want to close by saying that it's justified and it's correct that the EU is putting lots of effort into enhancing and integrating its military defense capabilities. But I would say that the EU focus on a broad security definition and broad security policy approach must be retained.