The Subcommittee on Security and Defence will hold a meeting with Nobuo Kishi, Minister of Defence of Japan, on 17 June. The aim is to go over the progress in the implementation of the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement in the area of security and defence. The debate will also look into translating commitments taken at the last EU-Japan Summit into joint actions to tackle global and regional challenges amidst rapidly intensifying geopolitical competition in the Indo-Pacific.
The recently adopted EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and prospects for further enhancing synergies with Japan as one of the EU's main strategic regional partners in the framework of the Strategy, will also be addressed.
On 27 May 2021, the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence will hold an online hearing "Collective security in the GULF". The recent tensions in the Middle East, as well as frequent attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia or series of oil tankers detentions in the Strait of Hormuz, have contributed to a worsening of security situation in the region.
While de-escalation is key, the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council have significant influence on the stability of the region, where 20% of the global oil supply flows transit. The hearing will aim at evaluating the security situation in the Gulf region while analysing the possibility of setting up a regional security mechanism.In the context of the exponential growth of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the President of the European Parliament has announced a number of measures to contain the spread of epidemic and to safeguard Parliament's core activities.
The current precautionary measures adopted by the European Parliament to contain the spread of COVID-19 do not affect work on legislative priorities. Core activities are reduced, but maintained to ensure that the institution's legislative, budgetary, scrutiny functions are maintained.
The meetings will be with remote participation for Members (being able to view and listen to proceedings, ask for the floor and intervene in the meeting). Other participants are invited to follow the meeting through webstreaming.Following these decisions, the next meeting of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) will take place on 16 and 17 June 2021 (online).
The meeting agenda and documents will be published here.