Members of Parliament Øyvind Halleraker (Conservative Party) and Svein Roald Hansen (Labour Party) took part in the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on EU Foreign and Security Policy. The conference was hosted by Luxembourg, which currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The biannual conference brings together members of the foreign affairs and defence committees in the EU member states and European Parliament. EU candidate countries and European non-EU NATO states have a standing invitation to take part as observers at the conference. Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, was an active delegate during the first of the two days.
 
Among the topics on the conference agenda were the status and future of the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy; priorities and strategy relating to the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy; challenges to security and defence policy posed by climate change; and, not least, the issue of migration.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the dominant issue during the conference was the current refugee situation and the ensuing challenges facing Europe. Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative, arrived directly from an informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers that had finished a few hours previously, and made reference to the extremely complicated and difficult talks that had taken place. She made it clear that the refugee question was an issue that concerned Europe as a whole; one that could only be solved by a Europe working together. It concerned Europe’s future and the future of the EU.

After the conference MPs Halleraker and Hansen stated that the situation confronting Europe as a result of the wars in Libya, Syria and Iraq was much more of a refugee crisis than a migration issue. It is not simply a short-term crisis, and Europe must be prepared that this situation will not simply go away quickly. They reiterated that it was a challenge that concerned the whole of Europe and that it could only be dealt with together and in solidarity with all European nations. Norway must not only accept this but must take its share of the responsibility in dealing with it.

The conference closed with a debate and subsequent consensus resolution to agree on the final conclusions from the meeting.

The next such meeting will be held in The Hague in April 2016 during the Netherlands’ EU Presidency.