EU Defence Ministers: Situation in Ukraine Gives Cause for Concern

As the Minister of Defence said, the member states agreed that the decisions made during the summit of heads of states and governments last December must be fully implemented in the field of the European Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). In accordance with that, further efforts should be made in the field of military capability development, and this should be supported with an appropriate level of defence expenditures. Several defence ministers – including Csaba Hende – pointed out that in the present situation, close cooperation with NATO and the United States becomes even more important. The possibility of launching an EU-led civilian mission in Ukraine was also on the agenda of the meeting, but this idea is still in its initial phase, Minister Hende noted.

Another topic at the meeting of defence ministers was the military operation led by the European Union in the Central African Republic (EUFOR RCA), with the participation of 13 member states – including Hungary – and Georgia. Minister Hende said that the main goal of the engagement of the European Union in the Central African Republic is to prevent humanitarian crisis. The planned 800-strong force of the mission will secure specific areas of the capital, and is expected to attain full operational capability by the end of May.

In addition to these issues, the participants of the meeting discussed the maritime security strategy of the European Union. This document, which helps to deal more effectively with maritime challenges, is due to be approved by this July.

The European Defence Agency (EDA) Steering Board had a meeting on ministerial level too. The attendees of the meeting discussed defence planning cooperation among European countries and capability development projects. Speaking about these, Minister Hende underlined the cooperation among the Visegrád Four countries (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), which has an important role in the defence sphere too.

Minister Hende added that on Tuesday afternoon, the member countries of the Defence Cooperation Initiative (DECI) – Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia – would sign a memorandum of understanding on setting up an Italy-led battle group in the first half of 2017. With this, Hungary further increases its contribution to the rapid reaction capabilities of the European Union, the minister pointed out.