Security and Defence Subcommittee (SEDE) - European Parliament

This policy brief provides a short overview of recent initiatives and developments in the EU’s institutional defence architecture, with a particular focus on changes proposed and implemented since 2016. Specifically, it looks at the new Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) framework, the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), the European Defence Fund (EDF), the Military Planning and Conduct Capacity (MPCC), as well as proposals to establish a European Peace Facility (EPF) and to take more Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) decisions through qualified majority voting. It examines the institutional state of play at the end of Federica Mogherini’s mandate as EU High Representative and the implications of EU defence institutional innovation for existing governance structures, internal coherence and effective oversight. Finally, it identifies some of the challenges posed by the recent reforms and initiatives relating to the EU’s existing defence infrastructure, and briefly introduces proposals to address these challenges.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

This policy brief provides an overview of what the EU has done through its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions and operations since 2003, and which achievements and challenges it faces at the end of EU High Representative/Vice-President (HR/VP) Federica Mogherini’s mandate. It evaluates how the overall political context and the EU’s approach have evolved over time, and how this has affected the launch and implementation of CSDP actions. It looks at a range of criteria for evaluating the success of missions and operations such as effectiveness, degree of match between mission launch and EU interests at stake, responsiveness, coherence with wider policy strategies, coherence with values and norms, and degree of democratic scrutiny and oversight. It assesses some of the achievements as well as shortcomings of previous and ongoing missions and operations against these objectives. The brief identifies three underlying and cross-cutting problems hampering performance: (i) incompatible attitudes among Member States towards the use of force; (ii) resource disincentives and barriers to timely European solidarity; and (iii) gaps between early warning and early action. It outlines some selected initiatives launched and options discussed to address these shortcomings and improve the EU’s performance in crisis management operations.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

The Monthly Highlights publication provides an overview, at a glance, of the on-going work of the policy departments, including a selection of the latest and forthcoming publications, and a list of future events.
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

SEDE organises a public hearing on 'Opportunities and challenges of the use of Artificial Intelligence - enabled
systems in security and defence' on Tuesday 3 December 2019, from 10.30 to 12.30hrs in room SPINELLI 3E2, with external experts.
Further information
Programme
Poster
Presentations by speakers
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

SEDE organised a public hearing on 'Opportunities and challenges of the use of Artificial Intelligence - enabled systems in security and defence' on 3 December 2019 with external experts.
Location : SPINELLI 3E2
Further information
Programme
Poster
Presentation by Jean-François RIPOCHE, Director of Research, Technology and Innovation (RTI), European Defence Agency (EDA)
Presentation by Maaike VERBRUGGEN, Doctoral Researcher at the International Security Cluster, Institute for European Studies (IES) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Presentation by Dr Mariarosaria TADDEO, Researcher Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and Deputy Director of the Digital Ethics Lab.
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Length of video : 216'
You may manually download this video in WMV (1.9Gb) format

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

SEDE organises a public hearing on 'Opportunities and challenges of the use of Artificial Intelligence - enabled systems in security and defence' on Tuesday 3 December 2019, from 10.30 to 12.30hrs, with external experts.
Location : SPINELLI 3E2
Further information
Programme
Poster
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

SEDE organises a public hearing on 'Opportunities and challenges of the use of Artificial Intelligence - enabled
systems in security and defence' on Tuesday 3 December 2019, from 10.30 to 12.30hrs in room SPINELLI 3E2, with external experts.
Further information
Programme
Poster
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

On 11 October 2017, SEDE held a public hearing on the militarisation in the Black Sea. The hearing was timely, as the regional security situation on the eastern flank has become very challenging for the EU and NATO. It focused on the security situation following the Russian illegal annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Furthermore, the hearing analysed the military strategic consequences of the conflicts and the possibilities to foster stability and cooperation.
Location : Paul-Henri Spaak 5B001
Further information
Programme
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

SEDE organised a public hearing on 'Artificial intelligence and its future impact on security' on Wednesday 10 October 2018, from 09.00 to 11.30, with four external experts.
Location : Paul-Henri Spaak, room 5B001
Further information
Draft programme
Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

SEDE organised a public hearing on 'The threats posed by drones to Europe's armed forces' on Tuesday 20 November 2018, from 09.30 to 11.00, with external experts.
Location : Paul-Henri Spaak, room 5B001
Further information
Draft programme
Presentation of Colonel Christophe Michel, SGDSN
Presentation of Tal Inbar, The Fisher Institute for Air & Space Strategic Studies
Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

SEDE organised a public hearing on 'Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny on EU Defence Affairs' on Tuesday 2nd April, from 14.30 to 16.00, with external experts
Location : Altiero Spinelli Room 3E-2
Further information
Programme
Poster
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

SEDE organised a public hearing on 'European Space Security and Defence: What action at EU level to address militarisation of space and race for resources?' on Tuesday 12 November 2019 with external experts.
Further information
Programme
Poster
Press release: Militarisation of space and race for resources: What can EU do about it? - 12 November 2019
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

The next meeting of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is scheduled to take place on Monday 2 December 2019 from 15:00 - 18:30 and on Tuesday 3 December 2019 from 9:00 - 12:30 and from 14:30 - 18:30 in Brussels (room SPINELLI 3E2).

You are welcome to follow us on the EP Multimedia Centre.

Recent press releases:

- MEPs exchange views with UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations - 21 November 2019
- Subcommittee for Security and Defence visit to the European Defence Agency - 18 November 2019
- Militarisation of space and race for resources: What can EU do about it? - 12 November 2019
- Children of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq: MEPs to assess the situation - 6 November 2019
- AFET/DROI/SEDE meet with UN Secretary General in New York and hold consultations with the US Congress in Washington, DC - 1st November 2019
- Parliament delegation to visit the United Nations General Assembly and US Congress - 25 October 2019
...

Further information
EP Mulitmedia Centre
Press release: MEPs exchange views with UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations - 21 November 2019
Press release: Subcommittee for Security and Defence visit to the European Defence Agency - 18 November 2019
Press release: Militarisation of space and race for resources: What can EU do about it? - 12 November 2019
Press release: Children of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq: MEPs to assess the situation - 6 November 2019
Press release: AFET/DROI/SEDE meet with UN Secretary General in New York and hold consultations with the US Congress in Washington, DC - 1st November 2019
Press release: Parliament delegation to visit the United Nations General Assembly and US Congress - 25 October 2019
Press release: MEPs call for sanctions against Turkey over military operation in Syria - 24 October 2019
Press release: NATO Parliamentary Assembly in London: “Unilateral military operation in north east Syria is a security risk to us all” - 15 October 2019
Press release: Russian actions prompt NATO and EU to improve military mobility in Europe - 8 October 2019
Press release: End of INF Treaty: Is arms control out of fashion? - 26 September 2019
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Length of video : 104'
You may manually download this video in WMV (1.2Gb) format

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP