European Union

An air strike late on Tuesday (2 July) hit a detention centre for mainly African migrants in a suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing at least 40 people and wounding 80, a health official said.

Embattled at home in politically divided Belgium, Mr Nice Guy on European stage - outgoing Belgian Prime Minister Chárles Michel, whom EU leaders designated to take over the European Council helm from Donald Tusk, might prove to be an unexpected, but suitable pick.

The diplomatic chiefs of the EU, France, Germany and Britain said Tuesday (2 July) they were "extremely concerned" and urged Iran to reverse its decision to breach a limit on enriched uranium reserves under a 2015 nuclear deal.

An Italian judge said Tuesday (2 July) that Sea-Watch 3 captain Carola Rackete was free to go, three days after her arrest for docking with 40 migrants aboard her rescue ship in defiance of an Italian ban.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau promised Tuesday (2 July) to support Ukraine in the wake of Russian "aggression," after a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Toronto.

The nomination of Christine Lagarde as European Central Bank president on Tuesday (2 July) has thrust the International Monetary Fund into an early, unanticipated search for a new leader amid a raging trade war that has darkened the outlook for global growth.

French President Emmanuel Macron defended a huge trade deal agreed by the European Union and four South American countries and warned against "neo-protectionism", as farmers and environmentalists step up their resistance to the accord.

A lawyer by training, Christine Lagarde has been nominated to succeed Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Banck (ECB). The IMF director has an atypical profile, due to her lack of banking experience and question marks over her past. EURACTIV France reports.

The European Parliament on Tuesday lost a years-long power struggle, and gave up winning more influence on European politics via the so-called Spitzenkandidat process it had championed.

Three out of the four people to lead the EU institutions in Brussels for the next five years were selected Tuesday, but none are well-known outside their own countries. The fourth, the European Parliament president, is to be chosen Wednesday.

An ally of Angela Merkel, the female Germany defence minister has been nominated by EU leaders for the commission top job. Ursula von der Leyen still needs to be approved by the EU Parliament, where she will meet some resistance.

The European Council finally agreed on a pick for the Commission presidency and rallied behind Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday (2 July). But it sets up a potentially ugly encounter with the European Parliament, which might not sanction her appointment.

German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, a compromise name for the next  European Commission President, is a non-divisive political figure on EU stage and quiet tactician hardly known outside Germany. But her career at home has often been marked by scandals.

The Frankfurt-based European Central Bank is set to get its first female leadership after the EU leaders in Brussels nominated Christine Legarde, who is current managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Although it has not been committed to paper, EU leaders suggested that Bulgaria’s Sergei Stanishev, president of the Party of European Socialists, would be the president of the new European Parliament for the next 2.5 years, as part of a package agreed at the EU summit on Tuesday (2 July).

Manfred Weber, the centre-right EPP's lead candidate in the race for the EU commission presidency on Tuesday withdrew his candidacy, making way for German minister Ursula von der Leyen to get the post. The EPP won the European elections last month and Weber was in pole position to clinch the EU commission top post, but his nomination was met with heavy resistance including from French president Emmanuel Macron.

The EPP’s lead candidate for the European Commission Manfred Weber was forced to step down from his candidacy for the post on Tuesday (2 July), as it became clear he could not obtain sufficient support from EU member states.

EU leaders agreed on Tuesday on a deal to nominate German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen as the new European Commission president, which the European Parliament still has to approve. Belgian premier Charles Michel was chosen as EU Council president and Spanish foreign minister Josep Borrell was named EU foreign affairs chief. The International Monetary Fund's director, Christine Lagarde, will get the top job at the European Central Bank.

The EU centre right bloc's lead candidate to be next European Commission president, Manfred Weber, has pulled out of the race, including for the EU Council and European Parliament posts. The centre-right EPP group is to support German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen for the commission post instead, while Weber may return to Berlin. Current EP president, Antonio Tajani, was mentioned to run again as president of the parliament.

The EDA SES Military Aviation Board (ESMAB) today held its 7th meeting at policy level. The meeting, which took place at the EUROCONTROL premises, was chaired by EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq.

The meeting was attended by the European Commission’s Director General for Mobility and Transport, Henrik Hololei, the Chairman of the EU Military Committee (EUMC), General Claudio Graziano, the Director General of Eurocontrol, Eamonn Brennon, the Commission Director for Aviation, Filip Cornelis, as well as representatives from a wide range of key aviation stakeholders, notably the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU), the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM), NATO, the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE), the Performance Review Body (PRB) and the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD). Also present were representatives from the four countries EDA has concluded Administrative Agreements with (Norway, Switzerland, Serbia, Ukraine). The ESMAB policy level is comprising Member States’ military aviation authorities or equivalent.

The meeting allowed participants to have an informal high-level exchange of views between the main civil and military actors involved in this domain, with a particular focus on the challenges and opportunities for civil and military collaboration in on Single European Sky. 

One of the operational conclusions of the meeting was that the ESMAB agreed to support the document “U-Space, Drones and Military Low-Level Flights” including its annex “Operations for traffic below 500ft AGL: a Military view” and to use this document at national and EU level, as a basis to increase awareness of and support for the interests of military aviation in the framework of U-Space developments. This document will be updated as a living document on a regular basis considering other aspects enlarging the scope of the analysis. The Board also welcomed the EDA-EASA guidelines for the accommodation of military instruments flight rules (IFR) for MALE RPAS under GAT (airspace classes A-C) outside segregated airspace and agreed to use the guidelines as a reference for the accommodation of MALE-type RPAS within the European airspace..

Regarding Higher Airspace Operations, the ESMAB agreed to Support the European Defence Agency activities to monitor the work led by EASA as regard the regulatory framework and the work led by SESAR Joint Undertaking and EUROCONTROL as regards the concept of operations for Higher Airspace.

The ESMAB management was also tasked, with the support of EDA, to further investigate the need to establish of a working group involving Member States representatives, as well as representatives of relevant civil and military organisations (NATO, ECTL, EASA, ICAO, etc.) with the objective to together address the cyber security challenges for the air domain, and to revert to the ESMAB (policy level) with a proposal.

The next policy level meeting of the ESMAB is scheduled for end of January 2020.
 

Background

An EDA SES Military Aviation Board (ESMAB) was created by the European Defence Agency Steering Board on 30 September 2015. Ever since, ESMAB meets at two level : - management/expert level and executive/policy level.

Rules and regulations of the civilian world can have an important impact on the military. Consequently, EDA is now recognised as the interface between Member States, EU institutions and agencies. A prominent example is the impact the Single European Sky and its related regulations have on the military. EDA, in its role of interface and facilitator of the coordination of military views is making the military voices heard in this important modernisation process through its successful cooperation with the European Commission, Eurocontrol, and other key EU bodies and agencies involved in SES. This is also achieved thanks to EDA participating Member States’ commitment to the ESMAB which held its first meeting in May 2016.
 

More information: 

• EDA in Single European Sky (project page)
• The Military In SES / SESAR