Tag: Defence

Europe's two biggest aerospace companies will go back to the drawing board to find new strategies after Germany stymied the world's biggest arms and aviation company merger.

While Europe is cutting its defence budgets due to the financial crisis, emerging countries are strengthening their military power, leading to a geopolitical shift in the international arena, writes Gergely Varga.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said ahead of talks with NATO allies today (14 October) that he was concerned by defence spending cuts in Europe that threatened to put more pressure on an increasingly stretched US military. European countries hit by the financial crisis are poised to make big cuts in defence budgets.

"The new European security strategy (ESS) could help to reconfigure EU-US relations in the post-Bush era and foster greater coherence, coordination and capabilities in EU policy-making," writes Antonio Missiroli, director of studies at the European Policy Centre, in an October commentary.

A determined Nicolas Sarkozy outshone his critics during the debate that followed his presentation of the French Presidency's priorities in the European Parliament on 10 July. In a skilled address, the French President accused those EU leaders who are reluctant to proceed with the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty of "cowardice". 

France yesterday (22 May) took a step towards revitalising its ties with Eastern Europe by signing a 'strategic partnership' with Hungary. The move will be followed by a similar agreement with Poland next Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm on 6 June amid a storm of controversy over his Cold War-style warning that Russia will revert to targeting its missiles on Europe if the US goes ahead with building a missile shield near its borders.

High Representative Javier Solana has updated MEPs on the outlook for the EU's CFSP, following the signing of the Berlin Declaration on 25 March 2007 and Chancellor Angela Merkel's call for a Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP) "based on co-operation with partners outside Europe". 

Germany's foreign ministry will host a two-day European security and defence conference in Berlin on 29 January 2007, within the framework of the German EU Presidency. 

The voluntary code of conduct to open EU defence procurement has received backing from 22 EU member states. 

Should the EU start pooling its scarce funding for defence research? EU Defence Ministers will debate the issue at an informal council in Austria. 

EU-US relations have been on a somewhat bumpy ride in recent years with disagreements over issues ranging from the Iraq-war to the Kyoto Treaty and the International Criminal Court. These matters, however, are only a small part of an otherwise well functioning US-EU relationship. After the re-election of President George W. Bush in November 2004 there has been a sustained effort on both sides of the Atlantic to get relations back on track. During the European tour of President Bush in February 2005, which included a first ever visit to EU institutions in Brussels, it became clear that both parties had decided to overcome the previous animosity.  This was further underlined by the international conference on Iraq on 22 June in Brussels, which was co-hosted by the US and the EU. 

With contributions from journalists, industrialists, parliamentarians, experts, senior officials of the Union, this important work from the Institute for Security Studies, delivers a comprehensive stocktaking of past achievements and future challenges for the European Security and Defence Policy.

EU defence ministers want to step up efforts to secure the EU's planned military capacity and agree to include smaller EU nations in battlegroups.