Vol. 546 No. 3
115 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Defence the meetings, formal and informal, of European Union Councils relevant to his portfolio held since June 1997; the number of such meetings personally attended by him; and where not so attended, the person who led the Irish delegation at such council meetings. [31937/01]
The Deputy will be aware that there is no Defence Ministers Council formation and that meetings of EU Defence Ministers have only informal status.
I have attended a total of eight informal meetings of EU Defence Ministers. Deputy Brian Cowen, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Seamus Brennan, Minister of State at the Department of Defence and Deputy Noel Davern, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development have represented me at a further three informal meetings.
In addition, I received an invitation from the German Minister for Defence to attend a meeting of European Defence Ministers at Bonn on 28 May 1999 in order to, inter alia, exchange views on developments, such as the Kosovo crisis, in advance of the EU Summit at Cologne. Due to prior commitments I was unable to attend. Ireland's permanent representative to the Western European Union, ambassador Eamonn Ryan, represented me at the meeting.
Details regarding the informal meetings are as listed in the following table:
|
Date |
Meeting |
Attendee |
Location |
|
3-4 November 1998 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial |
Deputy M. Smith, Minister for Defence |
Vienna, Austria |
|
10 May 1999 |
Occasional Meeting with other Defence Ministers on margins of Western European Union Ministerial Council |
Deputy M. Smith, Minister for Defence |
Bremen, Germany |
|
28 May 1999 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial |
Ambassador E. Ryan, Ireland's Permanent Representative to the Western European Union |
Bonn, Germany |
|
15-16 November 1999 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial En Marge General Affairs Council |
Deputy M. Smith, Minister for Defence |
Brussels |
|
28 February 2000 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial |
Deputy M. Smith, Minister for Defence |
Lisbon, Portugal |
|
20 March 2000 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial En Marge General Affairs Council |
Deputy M. Smith, Minister for Defence |
Brussels |
|
13 June 2000 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial En Marge General Affairs Council |
Deputy B. Cowen, Minister for Foreign Affairs |
Brussels |
|
22 September 2000 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial |
Deputy M. Smith, Minister for Defence |
Paris, France |
|
20-21 November 2000 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial En Marge General Affairs Council – Capabilities Commitment Conference |
Deputy S. Brennan, Minister of State at the Department of Defence |
Brussels. |
|
6 April 2001 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial |
Deputy M. Smith, Minister for Defence |
Brussels |
|
Date |
Meeting |
Attendee |
Location |
|
14 May 2001 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial – En Marge General Affairs Council |
Deputy Noel Davern, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development |
Brussels |
|
12 October 2001 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial |
Deputy Smith, Minister for Defence |
Brussels |
|
19-20 November 2001 |
EU Informal Defence Ministerial En Marge General Affairs Council – Capabilities Improvement Conference |
Deputy M. Smith, Minister for Defence |
Brussels |
