State Secretary for Defence Policy, Planning and International Relations, Simona Cojocaru, participated on Tuesday, 16 June, in the Videoconference of the EU Foreign Affairs Ministers (Defence).

The activity started with talks of the defence ministers on the consolidation of the EU commitments related to the CDSP missions and operations as well as in the context of the, COVID 19 pandemics. The officials also debated on the issue of funding EU's operational actions by means of the European Peace Facility.

The second major topic was dedicated to the defence initiatives by approaching aspects related to their functionality. The coherence between Permanent Structured cooperation and the Coordinated Annual Review of Defence the central main topic of discussions.

During the last part of the reunion, the talks focused on the financial resources allocated to the European Defence and Military Mobility Fund, from the perspective of the future 2021 2027 Multiannual Financial Framework.

State Secretary Simona Cojocaru saluted the in-depth talks and expanding them beyond the implications of the COVID-19 pandemics and pleaded for a concentration of the efforts on providing further courses of actions with respect to the increase of EU resilience as well as consolidation of its global player role. Also, she pointed out the importance of EU's initiatives in the field of defence in order to consolidate EU's global action, their coherence being extremely relevant in their relation with NATO. At the same time, the Romanian official emphasized the need to provide adequate funding by means of the future Multiannual Financial Framework, especially with regard to the European Defence and Military Mobility Fund.

Also, the Videoconference of the European Defence Agency Steering Board took place on the margins of the Foreign Affairs Ministers Council, where the officials discussed the Agency's Long-Term Review for the following years, considering the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemics. In this context, the interlocutors presented the results of the reflection process for the translation of the EDA Long-Term Review into concrete elements related to the defence capability development.

Romania encouraged the implementation of the projects regarding the development of EU capability and initiatives in the field of defence including under the aegis of PESCO, with a view of enabling an effective response of the EU to the next crises.

The Press Office