CESI to German Ministry of Defence: Human factor decisive for success of European Defence Union
2018-04-24 12:00
On April 23, a CESI delegation composed of CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger and the President and Vice-President of CESI’s Trade Council Defence, Thomas Sohst and Wolfram Kamm, met with the Secretary of State of the German Ministry of Defence, Gerd Hoofe, and the ministry’s Head of the HR Department, Lieutenant General Klaus von Heimendahl, to discuss a more systematic involvement of military and civilian staff and their representatives in the designing and implementation of the future European Defence Union (EDU).
Especially given the recent security backslide in both Europe and across the globe, the awareness of Europe’s citizens of security policies has been reshaped. Against the background of the EU’s newly introduced Permanent Structured Cooperation on Security and Defence (PESCO), a window of opportunities has opened up which should be seized in order to make these tools a success – and to deliver tangible results.
At its meeting at the German Ministry of Defence, the CESI delegation highlighted that the EDU would fail should the human factor not be sufficiently considered when designing common commitments and PESCO projects.
The German State Secretary welcomed the proposals, stating on the Minster’s behalf that involving the staff and its representatives of the military more systematically in the new European defense frame would be key to the EDU’s success. It will however remain crucial at this stage to make sure that such an initiative would find the appraisal of further Member States participating in PESCO, he said.
CESI will submit concrete proposals in the near future.
Picture: Klaus von Heimendahl, Wolfram Kamm, Gerd Hoofe, Thomas Sohst and Klaus Heeger © VBB 2018
