London, 17 September 2003: Members of the Assembly’s Defence and Technological and Aerospace Committees visited the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi) exhibition in London’s ExCel centre on 9 September 2003.
Members were briefed by Major General Alan Sharman, CBE, Director General of the Defence Manufacturers Association (DMA) on the Association’s activities and the defence industry’s current priorities which include defence research, transatlantic and European partnering and a reduction in the number of stages of approval, this being necessary to facilitate and speed up present and future projects.
Committee members also visited several frigates of the British, French and Belgian Navies moored in the London docks for the exhibition and watched a deployment exercise demonstration by the British Army.

In an ordinary working meeting held during the visit, the Assembly’s Defence Committee had a first discussion of two draft reports presented by Chairman John Wilkinson, MP (United Kingdom, Federated Group) on “Rapidly deployable European air forces” and by Assembly Vice-President Maria Manuela Aguiar (Portugal, Socialist Group) on “European defence: pooling and strengthening national and European capabilities”.

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Baveno (northern Italy): More than 350 participants have already registered for the Assembly’s conference on “New scenarios for European common security and defence” that will take place in Baveno from 22 to 24 September 2003. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini and the Polish Minister for European Affairs, Danuta Hübner, will speak during the conference on “Foreign policy and common defence in the future European Constitution”. The Chairman of WEAG, the Dutch Minister for Defence Henk Kamp will address the conference on “European defence: operational requirements and industrial competitiveness”. The programme of the conference can be downloaded from the Assembly web site under the activities section.

If you wish to attend the conference please contact the Assembly secretariat at +33.1.53.67.22.00 or by fax at 0033.1.53.67.22.01.