Informal Meeting of Defence Ministers

Date: 12.3.2009 — 13.3.2009
Venue: Prague - Czech Republic
Category: Informal Ministerial Meetings
Theme: General Affairs and External Relations

This meeting was the only opportunity for the EU Defence Ministers to meet in the Czech Republic during the Czech Presidency to discuss current issues on the European Security and Defence Policy agendas.

In addition to the representatives of all the EU Member States, the informal meeting was attended by the Secretary General/High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, the Director for Defence Affairs of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, representatives of the European Commission and the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency. The military bodies of the European Union were represented by the Chairman of the European Union Military Committee, the Director-General of the European Union Military Staff and the commanders of all the three current military operations of the EU. As the cooperation of the European Union and NATO was on the agenda and since it is regarded as important by the Czech Presidency, the meeting was attended by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.