The Minister for the Environment Dr Francis Zammit Dimech said that the fortresses of the Knights of St John form part of our history and of our heritage. Our capital city Valletta, Floriana, the Cottonera lines, forts and fortifications scattered all ove

The Hon Dr. John Vella will be attending the First Part of the 47th Session of the Assembly of Western European Union (WEU), the interim European Security and Defence Assembly. The Session will be held in the Palais D'I'?na, Paris between the 18th and 20th June 2001.

Personalities that will address the Conference include: Mr Klaus B'?hler, President of the Assembly; Mr Jozias van Aartsen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Chairman-in-Office of the Council; Mr Javier Solana, WEU secretary-General and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the Council of the European Union; Mr Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium, representing the incoming WEU/EU Presidency; H.E. Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of the Gran Duchy of Luxembourg.

The following are some of the topics to be discussed by the Assembly:-

The follow-up to the Nice decisions on the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and the completion of the project for European defence;

The position of member states on the future of the parliamentary dimension in the new European security and defence architecture;

Implementation of the Nice Summit decisions in the operational area of the ESDP;

Contribution of European non-EU countries to military crisis management in Europe;

Conventional armaments control – the CFE Treaty and its implications for the ESDP;

European anti-missile defence: a role for Russia; and

The Middle East and security in Europe.