The Minister of National Defence, Panos Kammenos, participated in the Informal Meeting of the European Union Ministers of Defence held in Sofia.

In the context of this meeting, the Ministers of Defence were informed by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, on the course of the development process of various parameters concerning the Europe of Defence.

The Minister of National Defence, Panos Kammenos, once again denounced the fact that the two Greek servicemen, who are both European and NATO servicemen, are held hostages for 66 days in the maximum security prisons in Adrianoupolis. He thanked the High Representative, as well as his counterparts, for their support so far and he encouraged the continuation of the efforts for the immediate release of the European servicemen.  

The main issue dealt with in the Meeting was the Permanent Structured Cooperation, for which the European Committee has obtained a co-funding amounting to 13 billion Euros for the period 2021 – 2027 from the community budget for research, technology and development of defense programmes.  As it is known, Greece is among the four countries with the most approved programmes.  

The European Committee is also going to provide funding of 6,5 billion Euros to infrastructure improvement (road axes, ports, airports), in order to facilitate military mobility. It is very important that all competent authorities in Greece benefit from this funding to improve infrastructure, to the advantage of the economy, tourism as well as transports.  

Finally, in the presence of the Deputy Secretary General of NATO and the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, a very wide-ranging exchange of views was held on the way European Union and NATO could strengthen the United Nations on preserving peace and conflict prevention.          

The Greek side highlighted the importance of the blue helmet units training, in compliance with the International Humanitarian Law, and in particular of the protection of women and children during armed conflicts and moreover the work performed in the multinational centre hosted in Macedonia.

In addition to the above, the Greek side notified its intention to request the assignment of the administration of the maritime surveillance of the UN operation in the area between Lebanon and Cyprus.