Interview with Julia Stewart-David, Acting Director, Disaster Preparedness and Prevention/Civil Protection Horizontal Issues (ECHO B.1), and Hans Das, Director for Emergency Management and rescEU (ECHO A), DG ECHO, European Commission, Brussels The European: Ms Stewart-David, Mr Das, you both hold leading positions within the European Commission’s Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid…
by Harald Kujat, former Chief Military Committee NATO, Berlin On 4 April 2023, 74 years after the founding of the North Atlantic Alliance, Finland was admitted as its 31st member. The President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, declared that “Finland is committed to the security of all NATO member states”, referring explicitly to one of the…
by Dr Hazem Rihawi, Senior Programs Manager, American Relief Coalition for Syria (ARCS) / Co-Chair of InterAction’s Syria Working Group, Washington DC On February 6th, 2023, at 4:17 am, a colossal earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter near Gaziantep, struck the Southern region of Türkiye and Northwest Syria. This seismic event…
by Natalia Pouzyreff, Member of Parliament (Yvelines/6th district), Member of the Defence Committee, Assemblée Nationale, Paris Since 24 February 2022, the war on Europe’s doorstep has led to a surge in military spending amongst European countries. Germany has conducted a total shift in its defence policy and has dedicated a special €100bn fund. Poland, for…
by Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, European Commission, Brussels You are at home when you hear the wildfire warning over the radio. You need to leave immediately. Your thoughts race immediately to your children, still at school… It was August 2022 when France requested help from the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (hereafter…
Was the Ukrainian war correspondent, Yurii Butusov, right when he said, in a recent interview in the Neue Züricher Zeitung, that the Third World War has already begun with the war in Ukraine? The Spanish author, Raúl Sánchez Cedillo, in his book This war will not end in Ukraine[1] refers back to the slide into…
(Ed/hb, Paris) This week, the European Union CBRN Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Initiative holds its 9th International meeting of the National Focal Points in Brussels. Launched in 2010 to increase national and regional CBRN cooperation worldwide, this successful EU-funded initiative currently counts 64 partner countries. The 2023 Brussels event, organised by…
Conference report by Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, Paris The 21st Berlin Security Conference (BSC), which took place from 30-31 November 2022 had a very special character. Never before has a BSC been held in wartime in Europe; never before have there been so many high-ranking speakers from the European Union (EU) and NATO countries, and never…
Interview with Stefano Cont, Director Capacity, Armament & Planning (CAP), European Defence Agency, Brussels The European: Director, when you took over your position in April 2022 you declared: “At a time when defence expenditure is expected to increase significantly (…), European cooperation and collaborative capability development will be key to making sure the money is…
Interview with Michael Gahler MEP, European Parliament, Brussels/Strasbourg The European: Mr Gahler, you have been dealing with security and defence issues in the European Parliament since 2004 and have held leading positions both in your party and in Parliament. As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) and a substitute member of the Subcommittee…