Brussels / Venice, 28/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt opened a seminar on European convergence in matters of defence in Brussels on 28 March organised by the Belgian Defence Ministry and which is continuing to 29 March, and in which in particular the High Representative for Cfsp, Javier Solana is taking part. Before the work began, according to BELGA, Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut stressed the collaboration Belgium had developed over recent years with other EU countries, like the Netherlands (in the air and naval field) and Portugal (in the field of the air force), and its intention to become involved in future in multinational projects, like the air command for air transport (suggested by German Defence Secretary Rudolf Scharping) and for naval transport (suggested by his French counterpart, Alain Richard and Dutch Frank De Grave).
Ten days ago, at the "Aspen Dialogue", in Venice on European security and defence policy, Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini had said that, to be credible, the European Union would have to define "military convergence criteria corresponding to the each country's ability to contribute". Defence budgets would have to be aligned, European armaments industries coordinated, envisage a different way of force planning, said Mr. Dini, for whom, among the convergence criteria, there could be: "a military budget more balanced between general expenditure, training and investment", the "Europe-wide rationalisation and regrouping of military industries for defence", a "common trend toward making the armed forces professional". Considering that "one could possibly envisage the drawing up of a white paper on European defence", Dini stressed that this may only be possible by "first progressing with a closer core of member countries". Anyway, "there needs to be a strong political power, essential for the currency no less than for defence", Mr. Dini concluded, recalling that the Italian Government considers that European security and defence must have a clear institutional definition, and proposes that this be "an essential part in the reorganisation, still going on, of the structures of the Union Treaties".