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Slovakia chairs Athena Special Committee for first time ever

Xinhua, July 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Slovakia as the country currently presiding over the Council of the EU chaired a session of the Athena Special Committee on Tuesday, said Slovak Defence Minister Peter Gajdos.

Slovakia will oversee spending on and the budgets of military operations and missions conducted under EU auspices.

"Our job is to supervise the unproblematic financing of missions and operations under the EU flag, which is one of the preconditions for a successful common security and defence policy," stressed Gajdos.

Committee members on Tuesday discussed, for example, the budgets of missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia and the Central African Republic.

The Athena Special Committee is made up of representatives of all EU-member states and approves proposals for the budgets of individual EU-led military missions and operations.

Six ongoing missions are currently under EU leadership, namely EUFOR ALTHEA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), EUNAVFOR ATALANTA (the Horn of Africa), EUTM Somalia, EUTM Mali, EUMAM RCA (the Central African Republic) and EUNAVFOR MED (the Mediterranean).

Slovakia's priority is to promote transparent and financially effective budgets for military operations and missions. Endit