The Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will organise an expert seminar on Pooling and Sharing of Defence Capabilities on February 3 in Budapest. The participants come from various EU institutions and research institutes of 27 Member States. The event will be opened by the Minister of Defence of the Hungarian Republic Dr Csaba Hende.

Organizing this seminar the Hungarian EU Presidency intends to continue the effort made by Spain and Belgium during their Presidencies. The aim of the initiatives is to give new impetus to EU capability development adversely affected by the economic and financial crisis. One of the high priority tasks of the Hungarian Presidency is to develop common military capabilities in the field of Common Security and Defence Policy. Therefore deeper cooperation between the defence establishments and the military industry of the Member States is a prerequisite.

The importance of pooling and sharing of defence capabilities is increasingly acknowledged by Member States. The seminar aims to encourage a brainstorm on capability development opportunities, making use of pooling and sharing. Moreover it intends to expand bilateral or multilateral solutions and find new domains for further cooperation in a European context. The seminar will consist of three sections. The first one will provide a theoretical background; the second will focus on existing experiences, while the third one will outline the future EU-level pooling and sharing framework.

(Ministry of Defence, Press Office)