Accord on defence and foreign policy

11 October 2007

BRUSSELS – Formateur Yves Leterme (CD&V) and the orange-blue negotiators reached an accord early last night on several issues to be included in the coalition agreement. The issues include foreign policy, European policy, development cooperation, and international security and defence, according to the formateur.

This is the second orange-blue deal this week. On Monday night the negotiators already agreed on asylum and migration.

The negotiators seem to have dealt with the text quite quickly compared to the deliberations on Monday. Foreign policy also leads to far less discussion.

No further explanations were given concerning the accord. The parties involved were not prepared to comment on the substance of the accord. It has been agreed that the formateur will explain the accord and the work planned for the formation at the end of the week.

A source close to the formateur indicated that foreign policy was an issue that had already been discussed elaborately and therefore caused hardly any problems. The EU presidency in 2010 was the most important issue that was discussed. With respect to development cooperation the intention is to pursue the policy set out by the previous government. With respect to defence the text referred to a smaller but more efficient army that can be deployed more often.

The coalition negotiations will only begin late this afternoon as the parliamentary factions are holding their meetings on Thursday afternoon. It is not yet known which dossier they will be tackling then. The negotiations on justice may well be continued.