EU Defence Ministers meet in Brussels on European defence cooperation in different formats, with focus on Strategic Compass

Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď along with other EU Defence Ministers took part in a number of meetings on current defence and security issues in Brussels. They met for discussions at the Foreign Affairs Council, the European Defence Agency's Ministerial Steering Board, and the EU Satellite Centre (SatCen).

At the Foreign Affairs Council meeting, Ministers devoted their attention to the current security developments in Ukraine, across the Sahel region, in Mozambique and to the progress achieved in Op IRINI, which enforces an arms embargo on Libya. Ministers spoke about the ongoing work on the preparation of the EU's Strategic Compass, namely about the area of crisis management.

Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: “The success of the EU as a global actor depends on our active engagement and the willingness of individual member countries to participate in advancing common goals and priorities. The EU's crisis management activities are the most visible expression of the EU's interest in profiling itself as an active player on the world scene. Slovakia is aware of it and, therefore, fully supports a common, complex and coordinated approach to solving emerging security issues and handling challenges. Slovakia's credit in the world grows with common actions of our partners and allies.” The debate on the EU's Strategic Compass, which is due to continue until mid-2022, provides a space to render the EU's ambitions in the field of security and defence more precise.

At the EDA Ministerial Steering Board meeting, Ministers discussed the EDA's further way ahead after the 2020 Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) Report. Its outcomes and a proposal for the implementation of CARD recommendations were presented by Head of the Agency and HR/VP Josep Borrell. The recommendations mainly concerned three major areas: defence spending, defence planning and defence cooperation.

EU Defence Ministers underlined the importance of the EU Satellite Centre (SatCen) in the context of developing the security landscape and the growing significance of the space dimension, as acknowledged by Ministers in the Conclusions of the SatCen Ministerial Board Meeting.