Brussels, 19/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Monday the President of the Council, Josep Piqué, indicated that the General Affairs Council has given the go-ahead for a meeting of EU Defence ministers on 13 May, without the presence of Foreign Affairs Ministers. Defence and Foreign Affairs Ministers will initially meet up and then work out between them the different areas of competence, namely, developments in EU military capability. Until that point, Defence Ministers will only be meeting up at the Informal Council or Joint Council with Foreign Ministers, where their sole remit for decision-making will cover European management policy and crisis prevention. The decision of the Council is limited to the meeting scheduled for 13 May. Defence Ministers will review measures for implementing the European capability development action plan, adopted at the second conference on capability last November (see EUROPE 20 November). An initial balance sheet is expected to be drawn up at the European Defence Chiefs' conference at the end of February. The first European military force manoeuvres will take place in May. According to the plan for the exercises adopted in May 2001 (see EUROPE 16 May), the test will focus essentially on European Union decision-making and co-ordination structures.