Czech Defence Ministry to link European experts for discussing the future of European defence and security

Author: SOPS MO

Organised by the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, the conference named Responsive CSDP: Navigating through Troubled Waters of Geopolitics takes place in the premises of the National Museum in Prague on July 6-7, 2022. The conference is going to discuss the future course of the European Union’s security and defence policy with a view to the current geopolitical situation. The Strategic Compass, a new EU security and defence strategy, will be one of the key subjects.

Over the past decades, the Czech Republic’s position in the heart of Europe helped to form a sense of security and certain carelessness. However, the war in Georgia in 2008 showed that this mindset was incorrect. This illusion disappeared for good with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the whole European Union, including the Czech Republic, woke up to the harsh reality. Both the war in Ukraine and general instability in the European neighbourhood caused by conflicts and crises directly impact the security of individual Member States. Europe has now come to realise that it needs to take a greater responsibility for strengthening its defence posture and be able to respond faster and more actively.

The European Union embraces the values of democracy, freedom and the rule of law, which constitute the basis that our societies and cooperation build on. EU Member States have worked together within the Common Security and Defence Policy already since 1999, but the present situation shows us there is a clear need to strengthen and intensify this cooperation.

The Strategic Compass is one of the key policies to enable that. Based on identified current threats and challenges the European Union is facing, we have set a clear track for our security cooperation to follow in the years ahead. The Strategic Compass harnesses concrete viable avenues with a very specific guidance for their realisation, thanks to which we will be able to strengthen our resilience and readiness. A high priority task of the Czech Presidency will be to bring the Strategic Compass into practice, which involves the implementation of a variety of means and tools to face current and future security threats and deepen cooperation between the EU and NATO.

The conference will particularly entertain the issue of strengthening the EU’s ability to respond to crises in its neighbourhood, which increasingly impact our security. The very conference program will comprise of a series of discussions intertwined by the consequences of the war in Ukraine and how to best deliver on the proposals under the Strategic Compass in the current situation.

The conference participants will debate the European ambitions in the domain of security and defence especially in the light of the Russian aggression in Ukraine and its ramifications, as well as the lessons learnt for the next course of action in strengthening our security. The discussion will also cover individual areas where the EU crisis management could work better, including fast force projection and strategic communication on missions and operations. The future of EU-NATO cooperation will be equally high on the agenda.

The conference speakers and invitees include leading security experts from the government and academia, from the Czech Republic, other Members States and EU institutions as well as representatives from non-EU countries.