Egmont is participating in a European think-tank project on the future security architecture in Europe, together with Ifri, oiip, CIDOB, KEW, iep, BIGS, and SFPA, and is organising a workshop that consists of two panels with officials and experts on the role of security guarantees and arms control.

Both security guarantees and arms control can be used as instruments to create a more stable post-war order in Europe. While the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 failed to stop Russian territorial aggression, the US and European states are debating the possibilities of providing security guarantees to Ukraine, and, eventually, EU and NATO membership. The first panel of the workshop will thus focus on the role security guarantees could play. The second panel will assess the unravelling of regional nuclear and conventional arms control in Europe (INF, New START, CFE, Open Skies…) and what role arms control can play in the creation of a new European security architecture. Subsequently, the lessons learnt from these treaties and their limitations will be the central topics of the second panel.

Agenda:

12h30-13h: Light network lunch

13h-13h15: Introductory remarks by Prof. Alexander Mattelaer (Egmont Senior Research Fellow).

13h15-14h30: Panel 1 on The Role of Security Guarantees in Europe’s Future Security Architecture, moderator: Prof. Sven Biscop (Director of the Europe in the World Programme at Egmont).

• (Ret.) General Marc Thys (Egmont Senior Associate Fellow)
• Peter Van De Velde (former Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to Ukraine)
• Elie Perot (PhD Researcher at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy of the Brussels School of Governance)

14h30-14h45: Coffee break

14h45-16h: Panel 2 on The Role of Arms Control in Europe’s Future Security Architecture, moderator: Wannes Verstraete (Egmont Associate Fellow).

• Sigurd Schelstraete (Director of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium)
• LCL David Lesch (Benelux Arms Control Agency)

(Photo credit:  Wikimedia Commons )