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During the first debate on the draft of the white paper on European defence, the main experts, heard in the European Parliament's Defence Subcommittee on 6 March, detailed the guidelines [...]

The European Commission will take the wraps off its long-awaited Green Paper on a European maritime policy on 7 June, the result of efforts over the past year by the [...]

The European Commission's green paper on maritime policy could recommend a new legal framework and new institutions to deal with Europe's coastal areas, EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg told representatives [...]

Green Paper. The conference was organised in response to the Commission's September 2004 Green Paper on defence procurement, which kick-started a consultation on how to open up the market. Currently, [...]

A Luxembourg Presidency 'non-paper' for the meeting on promoting ESDP finds that: 'The European Union and the member states have to become even more active and have to develop a [...]

Austrian security plans. The controversial intelligence agency plan was outlined in a paper but Mr Strasser did not mention it specifically during the debate he had requested on the European [...]

New threats. The paper presented by Mr Solana follows the outline he gave at the June 16 External Relations Council and before the European Parliament in Brussels on June 18. [...]

The Presidency's brief issues paper has nothing new to add to the debate. In just four or five points it sums up the ideas the Europeans have come up with [...]

For nearly 30 years, Karl von Wogau has sat on the EPP's benches in the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. The chair of the Defence Subcommittee was also very [...]

The report by Karl von Wogau, to be debated during the European Parliament's plenary session on 19 February and entitled European security strategy and ESDP' [European Security and Defence Policy), [...]

By a very large majority (500 votes for, 106 against and 36 abstentions), the European Parliament approved an own-initiative report by Helmut Kuhne (PES, Germany) on the European Security and [...]

Speaking to MEPs at the European Parliament subcommittee on security and defence on 17 July, Ambassador Carlos Pais, Portugal's representative to the Political and Security Committee, said that the second [...]

The European Commission has reiterated its call for member states to live up to their commitments regarding the EU's border security agency, Frontex. Commissioner for Justice Franco Frattini has recently [...]

A regulation on the intra-EU transfer of defence products and a directive on defence procurement are the two core proposals that the European Commission is due to unveil in a [...]

The EU is about to start a gradual four-phase plan to withdraw its troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina. This was one of the outcomes of a wide-ranging discussion of EU defence ministers [...]

Key EU institutional players have given a mixed response to European Commission's plans to extend the European Community's crime-busting powers. At the EU High Level Counter Terrorism Dialogue in Brussels [...]

Romania should join the EU on 1 January, 2007, as planned, but the pressure should be maintained on the government in Bucharest to continue efforts to fight corruption, according to [...]

Momentum reaping results. 'By and large, the EU is on track', Mr de Vries told journalists on the fringes of the Council, adding that 'the implementation backlog has been significantly [...]

United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, President of the EU Council, broke off talks at the G8 summit of world leaders in Scotland to fly back to London. He said: [...]

Racism disappointment. The draft Framework Decision faltered on a number of issues. Firstly, it was decided the proposal would not cover racist symbols as it was too divisive and complicated [...]

Mr Witney started off his presentation to the sub-committee on April 19 by explaining that, since becoming operational at the start of 2005, it had recruited 25 staff with the [...]

'I want Africa to be a flagship issue for this Commission,' European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on March 11, welcoming the publication in London and Addis Ababa of [...]

A new Euro 140 million strategy for 2005-2007 to tackle anti-personnel landmines worldwide was unveiled by the European Commission on December 2. The strategy aims to: reduce the threat they [...]

Battle Groups. EU Member States announced as expected plans for providing EU Battle Groups from 2005. These should give the EU the ability to conduct one mission using the Battle [...]

The European Commission will soon sail into new policy waters when it launches a public debate next week on a very sensitive subject: cross-border competition in the EU's defence industry. [...]

Asia. The Valkenburg approach to solving the ASEM problem also involved increasing aid to the Burmese people, and accepting Burma's attendance of the October 8-9 Summit in Hanoi provided the [...]

On aviation, Ministers will aim to settle a joint agenda for the coming years. They will discuss appropriate strategies to make air transport more efficient, safer and as sustainable as [...]

The prospective takeover by the European Union of the NATO-led SFOR (Stabilisation Force) military peace-keeping operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), was again high on the agenda of the regular [...]

Capabilities. The Council's stock-take of the development of the EU's military capabilities had pluses and minuses. On one hand, 'notable progress was achieved in addressing capability shortfalls', and EU foreign [...]

IGC. Meeting as the General Affairs Council on Monday morning, Ministers will examine preparations for the EU Summit on December 12-13 (which will notably cover economic growth, the EU Area [...]

Meeting informally in Rome on October 3-4 with their counterparts from the ten acceding countries, EU Defence Ministers signalled their commitment to taking forward European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) [...]

Council discussions. Presenting the issue to Ministers, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana reportedly highlighted three aspects: the need to reinforce the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as [...]

Security strategy. Speaking after the Council, Greek Foreign Minister and Council President Giorgios Papandreou described the development of an EU security strategy as 'historically very important'. He pointed out that [...]

Defence capabilities. EU officials reported after the meeting that the sides had agreed to set up a joint EU-NATO group (at diplomatic or expert level) to discuss defence capabilities, and [...]

The EU could be set to take over the SFOR (Stabilisation Force) mission in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) at some stage next year, according to 'very preliminary thoughts' set out [...]

Dangers of 'falling in with US line'. Jacques Chirac's outbust was directed explicitly at the members of the 'Vilnius group', the five signatories of the declaration (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia [...]

Various European Union instruments will be mobilised over the next two years to clear anti-personnel landmines and help victims, the European Commission said on December 3. The EU Mine Action [...]

The EU needs to develop a 'global vision' in the face of 'global threats' to its security, encompassing a 'wide range' of methods including judicial and police co-operation, economic and [...]

On the Schengen Action Plan, where the EU has anxieties on the frequency and scope of control between border crossing points, Poland says it will provide full financial resources for [...]

'American critics of non-American military incapability are right', said the NATO chief. 'If Europe is to play its proper part in NATO and more widely, and if we are to [...]

A declaration after the informal meeting said there was a unanimous opinion 'on the necessity to avoid a security vacuum when NATO withdraws'. The mandate of the approximately 4,500 strong [...]

Anna Lindh spoke out clearly on Chechnya while she was in Russia: 'The EU and Russia need each other and we both have a strong interest in intensifying our co-operation. [...]

EU defence policy made some further progress when the General Affairs Council on 22 January agreed formally on the transition from the interim to the permanent phase of three essential [...]