Chairperson of the Committee on International Relations and Emigrants Mr Miodrag Vuković and member of the Security and Defence Committee Mr Luiđ Ljubo Škrelja are participating in the Inter-parliamentary conference on the common foreign and security policy and the common security and defence policy, being held in The Hague, from 6 to 8 April 2016.

Ms Angelien Eijsink, Chair of the Political Preparatory Group for the IPC of the Netherlands Parliament, moderated the introductory session, where the following hosts welcomed the participants of the gathering: Ms Ankie Broekers-Knol, President of the Senate of the Netherlands Parliament, Mr Elmar Brok, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament and Ms Karlijn Jans, Chairperson of the Netherlands Atlantic Youth.

Ms Federica Mogherini, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission addressed the participants during the I session by a video message. She spoke on the current challenges in the field of the common foreign and security policy and the common security and defence policy. She particularly stressed the importance of joint timely action of the European Union member states, and providing unique response to current security challenges and threats.

This was followed by a presentation and a debate with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mr Bert Koenders.

Session II included presentation followed by debate with Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Ms Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Chief of Staff of the Netherlands General Tom Middendorp. During the session, the most important activities in this field of the Ministry and the Staff were presented. They participants also spoke about current security challenges and modalities for overcoming them.

After this, the delegates attended three workshops, devoted to topics: "State of play for the Global Security Strategy review”, during which Ms Nathalie Tocci, Special Advisor to High Representative and Vice President of the European Commission Ms Federice Mogherini for European Security Strategy. She spoke on the current security challenges and activities that should be undertaken in order to prevent them.
On the occasion, the participants had an opportunity to discuss with Mr Alfredo Conte, Head of Strategic Planning Division at the European External Action Service and Ms Michèle Alliot-Marie, Member of the European Parliament.

Within the second workshop on “Foreign policy aspects of migration”, the participants of the gathering discussed with the presenters: Mr Christian Leffler, Deputy Secretary General for Global and Economic Issues at the European External Action Service and Ms Esen Altug, Deputy Director General for Migration, Asylum and Visas at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. Participants of the Inter-parliamentary conference learned about the current state in this subject field, challenges of the current migration and importance of the timely undertaking of activities aimed at prevention of harmful consequences for citizens in this context.

The third workshop of the Inter-parliamentary conference was tiled: “European arms exports”. Mr Rini Goos, Deputy Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency and Mr Jacek Bylica, EU Special Envoy for Non-proliferation and Disarmament at the European External Action Service had presentations during this workshop. On the occasion, they jointly assessed that significant attention should be devoted to the subject matter, establishing a high level of cooperation among member states and undertaking activities aimed at its continuous strengthening.

Inter-parliamentary conference, organised within Dutch presidency of the European Union Council, will be continued tomorrow.