14/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - At the eighth Berliner Sicherheitskonferenz, the German Christian Democrat Hans-Gert Pöttering proposed the creation within the European Parliament of a bureau for a European ombudsman for the Armed Forces, based on removal of the German "Wehrbeauftragte". "This will give the approximately 2 million European soldiers of the Member States of the European Union a contact point, not only regarding the duties, rights and rules of engagement, but also regarding their social standards, health care and insurance in the event of injury, disability or death", he explained. Last year, at the seventh conference organised by Karl von Wogau with the Behörden Spiegel and the support of the EPP group of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the assembly of WEU, Hans-Gert Pöttering stated that he wished to bring the social rights and rules of engagement of soldiers on the theatre of operations closer together. The former President of the European Parliament had at the time proposed a concept known as SAFE, or Synchronised Armed Forces Europe. (O.J./trans.fl)