The delegates of the EU’s different parliaments met for an interparliamentary conference in Tallinn on Friday and Saturday. The representatives that attended the conference are all members of their parliaments’ committees on foreign policy and national defense.

In the light of recent developments, especially Russia’s increasingly unpredictable behavior as well as its aggression against Ukraine, the delegates widely agreed that more cooperation and also coordination is necessary within the EU both for a common position of the member states on foreign policy measures as well as paying more attention to defense.

Panelists at the conference included Defence Minister Jüri Luik (IRL), who called for more realism in the assessment of European defense cooperation. Luik pointed to the differences in defense policy between member states, and pointed out that it had to be the objective of any format of cooperation to find as much common ground as possible.

Co-chairman of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former Swedish prime minister, Carl Bildt, pointed out that the EU’s role as a force contributing to regional as well as global stability and security could only succeed if there was both military capability and strategic will.