Current News

The President of EUROMIL Spanish member association, AUME, was again imprisoned on 2 April 2013 for a period of one month and one day in a military prison near Madrid. The immediate arrest of Jorge Bravo is a consequence of the disciplinary proceedings launched by the military authorities against him, after a statement he made on 16 July 2012 in the media, considering that defence budget cuts should concentrate on superfluous spendings rather than salaries.

On 25 March 2013, representatives of organisations participating in the Fundamental Rights Platform (FRP) - the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights’ (FRA) network for cooperation and exchange of information with the civil society -, together with EUROMIL, represented by Caroline Henrion, Project Officer, and other civil society organisations based in Belgium, met with FRA’s Director, Mortem Kjaerum, and FRP’s Programme Manager, Massimo Toschi, at the Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR).

The European Defence Agency (EDA) hold its annual conference on 21 March 2013 on the topic "European Defence Matters". High-level speakers such as President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy or High Representative Catherine Ashton discussed defence cooperation.

On 21 March 2013 EUROMIL’s member association from Montenegro, SOVCG, organised a round table on the implementation of the Recommendation CM/Rec (2010)4 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on human rights of members of the armed forces. SOVCG was supported for this event by the “Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro” (USSCG) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Military personnel in active service, retired officers and NCOs organised a demonstration to denounce the deteriorating situation for armed forces personnel in Greece on 9 March 2013. About 10,000 people gathered in the city centre of Athens.