Conferentie over samenwerking met Oost-Europese landen inzake veiligheidsbeleid (en)

On Tuesday Warsaw became the centre of European debate about closer cooperation between the EU and the Eastern Partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Russia) regarding security and defence.

The grand opening of the conference, which was dedicated to this issue, was performed by the Undersecretary of State for Defence Policy at the Ministry of National Defence, Dr Zbigniew Wlosowicz. The Minister began with the following: ‘The aim of the conference is to review the current actions of the EU addressing its neighbours, including partners from the East’, and at the same time ‘to identify areas for potential cooperation within the scope of the CSDP’. During the inauguration speech, Minister Wlosowicz commended the basis for cooperation proposed by Poland within the scope of the CSDP and the Eastern Partnership: training and education, political dialogue, EU crisis response and reform of the security sector. The Minister also underlined that the development of some aspects of cooperation requires the acceptance of ‘a method of small steps and has to be followed over a long period of time’. To this end we have to be ‘ambitious yet realistic - which is what the conference is for’ - added Dr Wlosowicz.

Today’s meeting was summarised by the Director of the Department for International Political Safety of the Ministry of National Defence, Marcin Kazmierski.

The main aims of the conference comprise: the initiation of discussions about possible areas of cooperation in the countries of Eastern Europe and Transcaucasia as well as a review of the existing Union initiatives in this matter, and finding out the expectations of the Eastern partners regarding the submitted proposals and their opinions about the development of the CSDP.

The conference is addressed to civil and army experts, Member States of the EU and partner countries, as well as the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Commission. The speakers of the conference represent the higher decision-making levels, including representatives of EU institutions [European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Security and Defence College (ESDC)], the Member States of the EU and the Eastern partners. The invited panellists including Ambassador Maciej Popowski - Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service, Walter Stevens, Head of the Crisis Management and Planning Directorate (CMPD) and Hans Weisserth - Head of the Secretariat of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC).

Dagmara Jaroslawska, MOD Spokesperson of the Polish Presidency i in the EU Council