As part of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Informal Meeting of the Defence Ministers of the European Union will take place on 30-31 January in Bucharest, in the Royal Palace and the Palace of Parliament.

The event will be chaired by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, and hosted by the Minister of National Defence, Gabriel Leş. NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, and UN Deputy Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, were invited to participate in this discussion.

The meeting will start on 30 January at the Royal Palace with a working dinner focusing on “Women, Peace and Security”, a shared priority for the EU, UN and NATO, and how to mainstream this agenda into peace operations and crisis management.

On day two, 31 January, the Ministers will meet at the Palace of Parliament to exchange views on the way forward on European security and defence policy. They will take stock of the implementation of the work done so far, based on the EU’s Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy, discuss means of ensuring coherence between the different initiatives and address the implication of trends in technological innovation for armed forces of the Member States.