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

An informal meeting of the Defence Ministers of the EU Members States will be held on 12 and 13 March in Prague. This meeting is 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 will be 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 will be 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 is an issue discussed and regarded as important by the Czech Presidency, the meeting will be attended by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

The main points on the agenda of the informal meeting of Defence Ministers will include EU military operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina (ALTHEA), Chad and the Central African Republic (EUFOR TCHAD/RCA), and the very first EU marine operation, ATALANTA, aiming to combat piracy in the Somali coastal waters, development of the EU military capabilities with emphasis on resolving the availability of helicopter capacities for military operations and on the continued implementation of the projects and programmes initiated by the French Presidency and, last but not least, cooperation of the EU with its strategic partners in the area of security, i.e. NATO, the UN and the African Union.

In addition to the informal meeting, the Troika (the current and the next presidency, General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission) will meet with the Defence Ministers of NATO member states that are not members of the EU (Iceland, Norway and Turkey) and with the Defence Ministers of the candidates for accession (Croatia, FYROM). The aim of the meeting is to provide the partners with detailed information on the course and results of the informal meeting held by the EU Member States’ Defence Ministers.