High Representative/Vice President Josep Borrell has travelled to Washington, DC, on 7-8 February. On 7 February the HR/VP Borrell will hold a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Blinken to discuss pressing issues on the international agenda to reconfirm the strength of the transatlantic partnership at a crucial moment for global diplomacy. HR/VP will then co chair alongside EU Commissioner […]
How the EU is supporting Ukraine
Since withdrawing from the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has been keen to pursue its own path, including forging closer links with the rest of Europe. Ukraine’s relations with Russia have been tense due to the latter’s determination to keep the country within its sphere of influence. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea in violation of […]
Foreign Affairs Council Main Results, 24 January 2022
The EU Council of Foreign Ministers met on 24 January 2022 in Brussels. The meeting was chaired by Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Foreign ministers discussed current events and exchanged views on the latest developments and the rapidly evolving external relations. Some of the main outcomes of the meeting […]
EU reaction to cyber-attacks on Ukraine
At the meeting held in Brest (France) on January 13-14 and chaired by the High Representative and Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, the foreign ministers of the EU Member States discussed the foreign policy and strategic security of the European Union. The Strategic Compass, to be adopted in March 2022 and covering the […]
Transatlantic cooperation in support of Ukraine
On Saturday, January 15, the EU High Representative held a telephone communication with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which, as reported by the European External Action Service, both representatives rejected the Russian initiative to rebuild spheres of influence in Europe and underlined their determination to continue intensive consultations on this and other issues […]
Modernising judicial cooperation with further digitalization
On December 1, the European Commission has adopted several initiatives to digitalise EU justice systems, making them more accessible and effective. The overarching aim of the measures is to make digital communication channels the default channel in cross-border judicial cases, thus translating one of the priorities set out in last year’s Communication on the Digitalisation of […]
CROWN: European multifunction radiofrequency system project launched
Europe’s defence research programme – PADR – has launched a new project. The CROWN project will focus on European active electronically scanned array with combined radar, communications and electronic warfare functions for military applications. The project, with a budget of approximately €10 million and a duration of 30 months, was selected under the 2019 call […]
New R&D project to focus on interoperability standards for unmanned systems
The implementation of INTERACT (‘Interoperability Standards for Unmanned Armed Forces Systems’), a project selected under the 2019 call for proposals for the EU Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) managed by EDA, was officially launched at an online kick-off meeting on 21 June 2021. The aim of this 1.5 M€ project, financed by the European Commission, is […]
Feasibility of a future European army
While there is no EU army and defence remains exclusively a matter for member states, the EU has recently taken big steps to boost defence cooperation. Since 2016, there has been significant progress in the area of EU security and defence with several concrete EU initiatives to encourage cooperation and reinforce Europe’s capacity to defend […]