CESI’s 8^th European Defence Round Table (EDRT)*  

18 February 2025 2024 1:30 – 3:00 PM| online & in Brussels | In English & German languages

Please register here

The global security landscape has changed significantly during the last three years. While Russia´s war on Ukraine enters its third year, the Middle East conflict remains structurally unsolved, and Donald Trump’s return to the White House will profoundly challenge the EU’s foreign and security policy. The new EU’s political leadership faces several challenging tasks, including ensuring European security in an era of complete instability, balancing the need for economic growth, sustainability, and social policies while making significant investments in defence-related production, and determining how the proposed European Defence Union will enhance military readiness, improve mobility, and foster joint investments.

To address these challenges, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has prioritized defence and the establishment of a “European Defence Union.” In her political guidelines she announced a White Paper on European Defence within her first 100 days in office. Commissioners Kaja Kallas (High Representative/Vice President) and Andrius Kubilius (Defence and Space) will spearhead these efforts, focusing on defence capabilities, industrial competitiveness, and key investment needs.

As the EU’s new political electoral cycle unfolds amid ongoing and interconnected crises and challenges — including the war in Ukraine, climate change, inflation, demographic aging, political fragmentations, and a change in American leadership — this event aims to inform and further CESI’s EU-funded Syncrisis project. The project assesses how, in times of crisis, public services must be equipped and adapted to deliver and continue to perform, and to which extent effective crisis management relies on resilient, high-performing, and well-functioning public services and administrations. In the area of defence, the aim of the project is to underpin the need for reforms and investment in military staff, equipment, resources and Member State cooperation to maintain effective security for Europe.

CESI’s 8th European Defence Round Table seeks to address questions including the following:

• How can EU enhance its defence integration, addressing threats such as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and broader geopolitical challenges while also prioritising its social policies and its economies of scale? What are likely implications brought by the new Trump administration?
• Will key initiatives such as a European air shield, an expansion of cyber-defence, strengthened EU-NATO ties, reduced external procurement dependencies, and fostered intra-EU defence collaboration be sufficient for the EU to preserve its peace and commercial ties?
• What strategies can be employed to persuade EU Member States to enhance their investments to achieve EU defence readiness and capacity, and how can these investments be aligned with the broader goals of economic stability and employment protection for military and civilian armed forces?
• Which priorities should feature above all in the forthcoming White Paper on European Defence, from the perspective of military staff as well as broader military aspects?

With the participation of (in alphabetical order):

• MEP Michael Gahler, Member of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, (Germany)- Video Message
• Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI)
• Mary Kaldor, Prof. Emeritus of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict Research Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
• Sebastian Käding, Assessor for Civilian Employees, Government Senior Official at the German Armed Forces Association (DBwV), (tbc)
• Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence (tbc)

Please register for the CESI’s 8th European Defence Round Table (EDRT) here.

*CESI’s European Defence Round Table (EDRT) aims at including more key players and stakeholders in the processes of the Common Security and Defence Policy.