Helsinki, 6th September
On 4-6 September, Member of the European Parliament Željana Zovko participated as a member of the European Parliament’s official delegation at the Inter-parliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This conference takes place twice a year and provides the opportunity for national and European policy makers to exchange their views on the latest developments in foreign, security and defence matters. Since Finland has currently the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, the conference took place in Helsinki. This was the first Inter-Parliamentary conference for Ms Zovko since her appointment as EPP deputy coordinator for the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The agenda of the IPC contained a wide variety of discussion panels and workshops involving many high level speaker. Ms Zovko attended the session on Security Challenges in the Baltic Sea Region and the Arctic where the President of Finland warned that the security environment in Northern Europe has deteriorated in recent years due to security and environmental developments. During the exchange of views on the priorities of the EU in the area of CFSP and CSDP, it was Ms Federica Mogherini, outgoing High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, who addressed the audience via a videolink.
Since Ms Zovko is a member of the EP delegation to the USA, she showed a strong interest in the discussion on transatlantic unity. The participants concluded that, although the transatlantic partnership has been facing a great number of challenges and disruptions, long-term cooperation between the EU and US, as likeminded partners, remains crucial and a core interest for both partners’ collective security and prosperity.
On Friday, the participants of the conference gathered for a set of three workshops of which one dealt with the political and security developments in the Western Balkans. The common position of the participants was that the EU, its Member States and the accession countries must reinforce their commitment, as the processes of accession and the EU’s internal reform should go hand in hand in order to reinforce each other.
MEP Zovko was very satisfied with the final conclusions of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference and looks forward to continue her work in the EP on foreign security and defence policies.