The presidents of the national organisations forming the EuroDéfense network held their meeting on 12-13 May 2011 in Budapest.

The EuroDéfense organisation – whose members are retired and still active diplomats, officers, researchers, as well as political, economic and industrial leaders and journalists – aims at promoting the common European security and defence policy. The conference was chaired by Dr. Bálint Kunos – retired Brigadier General, president of EuroDéfense Hungary – and by Willy Herteleer – former Chief of Staff of the Belgian Defence Forces. Among the participants were former Austrian Minister of Defence Werner Fasslabend, Chief of Staff of the French Air Force Jean Rannou, Head of the Prime Minister’s Office in Luxembourg Jos Berg, and the Secretary General of EuroDéfense Jean Guinard.

During the two-day conference participants discussed the forms and the efficiency of cooperation with EU and NATO bodies as well as bilateral and multilateral initiatives promoting European security and defence policy, e.g. the agreement on military cooperation between France and the United Kingdom. The results of the talks on ’Central European Solutions for Pooling and Sharing of Capabilities’ initiated by Hungary and Austria was presented by retired General Dr. Zoltán Szenes, former Hungarian Chief of Defence, senior lecturer of the Zrínyi Miklós National Defence University.

The participants of the conference were received at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Deputy Secretary of State and Political Director Mr. Péter Sztáray, and later met Major General István Juhász, Director General of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defence, during a working lunch. To close the conference, Mr. Péter Siklósi, Deputy Secretary of State of the Hungarian Ministry of Defence, informed the participants about the events and results during the Hungarian EU Presidency in the field of security and defence policy as well as on the plans and tasks of the MoD in the defence field.

(kormany.hu, HM)