On 8-10 October, ICDS Head of Studies and Research Fellow Tomas Jermalavičius attended the high-level seminar “Eastern Partnership and European Security: Enhanced Cooperation to Overcome Common Challenges” which took place in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Co-organised by the Lithuanian ministries of foreign affairs and national defence as well as the EU Commission and Eastern Europe Studies Centre, the event is a traditional forum that brings together representatives of all EaP nations and various EU Member States. The 2018 seminar was dedicated to exploring the opportunities for engaging EaP countries in the framework of the EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) with the help of such new instruments as PESCO and the European Defence Fund.
Tomas Jermalavičius moderated a “think-tankers” evening session on security cooperation between the EU and EaP countries. The panel included Gabor Iklody (Director of the Crisis Management and Planning Directorate of the EU External Action Service), Olivier de France (Research Director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs), Nadiia Koval (Head of the Centre for International Studies, Hennadii Udovenko Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine), and Ambassador Shota Gvineria (Senior Fellow, Economic Policy Research Centre, Georgia). The discussion focused on how resilience, which is one of the main concepts of the EU’s Global Strategy, can be fostered through forging closer security and defence partnerships between the EU and EaP countries.