Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing (1974-1981) died yesterday. Close to Helmut Schmidt, he worked during his presidency to give impetus for new EU structures (European Council, European Monetary System, election of Members of Parliament by direct universal suffrage). Member of EU Parliament from 1989 to 1993, he was appointed Read more…
First publication of the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) The first CARD has been published by the European Defence Agency on November 20th. The CARD is a disposition meant to provide a picture of the EU Defence landscape, to analyse defence planning and development. It concludes with tailored collaboration Read more…
Official reaction from EU to the US elections Saluting Joe Biden recent election for the American presidency, J. Borrell, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU Commission, underlined the opportunity it constitutes to rebuild EU-US relations. However, he states that “The world needs a US Read more…
European External Action Service launches a Arm Export Database The European External Action Service has launched, on October 26th, an online database named COARM on arms exports from member states. It currently covers the period-2013-2019, but is aimed to be updated every year based on the annual report on arms exports supervised by the council and Read more…
Interview of EU VP for Foreign Affairs : challenges in EU geopolitical and defence position In a recent interview to the French newspaper Le Monde, Josep Borrel gave highlights of his analysis of the geopolitical situation, regarding the COVID-19 crisis. Among more international issues, he stated: Concerning the coming American elections, Read more…
European sanctions on Belorussia and Turkey On September 31st, the European Union agreed during a EU summit to impose sanctions to 40 of Belarusian officials, at the exception of President Lukashenko. These sanctions are announced almost 2 months after the official election result. They also took actions forward concerning the Mediterranean Sea issues Read more…
Irini first interception of a ship suspected of violating UN Weapon embargo on Lybia The German frigate FGS Hamburg, assisted by the Italian frigate ITS Margottini has intercepted on September 10th, 2020 the MV Royal Diamond 7 ship leaving the United Arab Emirates for Benghazi. It is the first official Read more…
The French Italian aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia in Mars On July 30 the American agency NASA has launched an Atlas V rocket to Mars. Its mission is to study Mars surface, taking soil samples and analyzing them lately to understand if there is life on Mars. This mission is carried Read more…
Substantial reduction in the European defence budget In 2018 the European Union planned to increase the share of its security and defense spendings to 2,1% of its total financial budget for the period 2021 – 2027. The defense fund alone should have increased from 575 Million € to 11,5 Billion Read more…