British-German Dialogue on Defence and Security Policies: A Centre Left Perspective

On 06-07 March, a delegation of Social Democratic Party representatives from the German Bundestag and Labour Party MPs met in Berlin as part of the annual British-German Dialogue on Defence and Security Policies. This SPD-Labour Party Dialogue was organised in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. 

Project Focus

Discussions in Berlin provided British and German parliamentarians from the centre left spectrum, with an opportunity to examine common security and defence issues, as well as help clarify both parties’ approaches to European security.

The seminar was most successful in terms of highlighting those areas of consensus between the two parties, as well as providing a forum for debate regarding certain national political perspectives. The roundtable was a follow-on session to the inaugural SPD-Labour Party Defence Dialogue held in London at the Royal United Services Institute in March 2007.

Conference Programme

Each session was presided over by a Chairman and began with a brief introduction by a representative of either the British or German side.

Session One  Focus on the European Union: Implications of the Lisbon Treaty for ESDP
British Chairman: Sir Paul Lever, RUSI
German Speaker: Angelica Schwall-Düren, MdB

Session Two  From Common Foreign and Security Policy to a more rapid military and civilian emergency response
German Chairman: Karl-Heinz Spiegel, FES
British Speaker: Denis MacShane MP

Session Three  Kosovo and security in the Balkans: Dealing with Final Status
British Chairman: Jonathan Eyal, RUSI 
German Speaker: Ursula Mogg, MdB

Session Four  Member States’ position and engagement in Afghanistan
German Chairman: Timo Noetzel, SWP
British Speaker: Mark Hendrick MP