Tag: defence policy

It is impossible to conceive 'Defence Europe' as a project for all 27 member states because they do not all share "similar ambitions", French Defence Minister Hervé Morin told EurActiv France in an exclusive interview.

France is not entirely convinced about any of the candidates currently in contention for the EU top posts after 2009 and expects new names to emerge, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said yesterday (26 May).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has softened his stance towards Turkey, saying that he would not block negotiations between Ankara and the European Union, despite his long opposition to the country's accession.

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 is set to lead the EU's Congo election mission, which would see the EU sending 800 troops to safeguard free elections.

The EU needs to pool its defence resources and spend more on research if the EU is ever to improve its defence capabilities, says a new report.

The European Defence Agency has been further consolidated following its first annual work programme, with agreement also reached on the creation of EU 'battle groups'.

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. 

The Bush administration's new National Security Strategy is perceived as an attempt to maintain the US military hegemony by Washington's European allies.

The Macedonian Foreign Minister, Slobodan Casule, has stated that Macedonia no longer needs the European Union peace-keeping troops.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution that supports the decisions to set up an EU police mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the first EU peace-keeping mission in Macedonia.

The US Vice-President Dick Cheney is touring Europe and the Middle East to muster support for the planned American action against Iraq.

The British government has expressed serious concern that the EU Rapid Reaction Force is not yet able to take over a peace-keeping mission from NATO in Macedonia in June.

The Italian Defence Minister, Antonio Martino, stated that Italy was asked to take over Germany's command of the international peace-keeping force in Macedonia. EU Foreign Ministers decided at their meeting in Cáceres, Spain, on 9 February, that the Union should take over the responsibility for the Macedonian peace force from NATO.

Leaders of European armament industries, gathering in Brussels for a conference on defence research and development, said that the EU should reduce the technological gap with the US. The conference, organised by GPC International, called for more investment in EU defence technology that currently reaches only 26 per cent of the US level.

The Spanish Presidency intends to give a boost to the European Security and Defence Policy as a means to increase Europe's presence on the international stage. The Spanish Prime Minister, José María Aznar said that fight against terrorism should become one of the policy's objectives.

US President George W. Bush has announced to the Congress leaders that Washington will renounce the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in six months. Some diplomats fear that the move could prompt other countries, such as China, to speed the modernisation of their own nuclear forces.

Greece, an EU member, has warned that it may block the deal with Turkey on European rapid reaction force. Turkey had earlier announced that it was ready to drop its objections to NATO sharing its military equipment and planning capabilities with the EU rapid reaction force.

NATO and Russia have launched a new strategic partnership at a meeting between NATO Secretary General George Robertson and the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 22 November. Lord Robertson presented the British proposal to offer Russia a say in some NATO decisions.

The foreign and defence ministers of the 15 EU Member States recognised the need to speed up their common defence policy in the aftermath of the 11 September terrorist attacks. The EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana urged the Member States to put more resources into the planned rapid reaction force, to be set up by 2003.

A new study by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, dealing with the post-September-11 threat, expresses doubt that the EU will be capable of setting up its rapid reaction force by 2003. The study deals with the new strategic era after the terrorist attacks in the US, when international terrorism is a newly defined enemy, capable of effectively controlling states from which it can operate.

EU defence ministers are discussing plans to speed up the implementation of their common security and defence policy in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in the US. The Friday meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels has started with a discussion on the US and British military campaign against terrorist bases in Afghanistan.