ICDS held two roundtable discussions on 20 June 2018: first, on the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027, and second, on the NATO Summit to be held on 11-12 July in Brussels.
The speaker at the first roundtable was Mr Matti Maasikas, Undersecretary for European Affairs at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The negotiations for the next EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 are in the early stages. On 12 June, the European Commission published the final set of the sectoral proposals for migration, border management and security, European Defence Fund and neighbourhood policy; adding to the already released proposals in the course of May. Mr Maasikas briefed the participants on the negotiation process and Estonia’s positions. The discussion was attended by embassies of EU member states in Tallinn and moderated by Dr Kristi Raik, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at ICDS.
The speaker at the second roundtable was Mr. Jüri Luik, Defence Minister of Estonia, who outlined Estonia’s expectations for the July 11-12 NATO Summit meeting in Brussels. As NATO finalizes its decisions on the strategic issues of reinforcement, readiness, the speed of decision-making, burden-sharing, NATO-EU relations, military mobility, cyber defence and the open door policy were addressed. NATO Embassies in Estonia participated in the discussion and the event was moderated by Mr. Eerik Marmei, ICDS Research Fellow.