With the increasing instability outside the European Union’s external borders, the spill-over of violence and returning fighters are reaching the European Union and civilians are the first target. With threats still being pronounced against member states, the terrorism alert is elevated and people feel less secure. Europe has now reached a stage where the line between what is “internal” and “external” security has been blurred with the changing security situation. In order to protect the public and prevent further attacks, military forces have been deployed inside the borders of some European countries.

This event will focus on what it means to deploy military forces to ensure the maintenance of internal security, effectively taking up the function of the police forces. While this seems like a reassuring short-term solution, it raises a lot of legal and political questions: Under which conditions is the deployment of military personnel inside the country legal? Which specific tasks may or may not be performed by the military? Is the military trained and equipped to perform police-like security tasks? If not, which additional training is necessary?

Welcome:

Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of CESI

Emmanuel Jacob, President of EUROMIL

Discussion with the participation of:

Colonel Erwin Hoogland, Dutch Ministry of Defence

Thomas Sohst, German Armed Forces Association (DBwV)

Captain Lars Scraeyen, Royal Higher Institute for Defence

Closing remarks:

Michael Gahler, Member of the European Parliament

The event will take place in English.

For more information, please contact the EUROMIL Office.

Register for the event here.