The European Institute of Peace (EIP) is a not-for-profit public foundation which contributes to and trappings the worldwide peace agenda of the European Union chiefly through intercession and casual discussion. On 18 February 2014, the Ministers of Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland signed the statutes for the formation of the Institute. The EIP was launched on 12 May 2014 by foreign ministers from the signatory managements as well as Italy and Spain, and is based in Brussels.
Arrangements for the formation of the Institute started in the past few years. In 2009 former Finnish president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari called for the creation of such an Institute, underpinning the need for improved learning from past lessons. In 2010 Swedens Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt and Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb developed a joint non-paper that was addressed to EU High Representative Catherine Ashton.They referred to the limits of traditional negotiation and emphasised the added value that volumes outside those available to high-level decision-makers could have. At the same time, the knowledge of a European Institute of Peace gained growing attention among members of the European Parliament (MEP) and was particularly maintained by German MEP Franziska Brantner and French MEP Alain Lamassoure.
Presently work efforts on several themes :
• The international arms transfers and arms trafficking
• The
economics of armaments
• The small arms and light weapons
• International and regional processes for regulating the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the United Nations , within the European Union , within ECOWAS , etc .
• Thematic studies on the proliferation of small arms in Africa , particularly in West Africa and Great Lakes region ( Democratic Republic of Congo , Rwanda , Burundi and Uganda )
• The Belgian legislation on the possession and
trade in arms
• The non-conventional weapons ( nuclear , biological and chemical ) and goods and dual-use technologies
• The prevention of armed conflict
Most broadly held works by European Institute for Research and Information on Peace and Security are as follows:
• Central, Media and Conflict: War vectors or actors for peace
• Memento defense-disarmament 1997: Europe and International Security
• Memento defense-disarmament 1992: Europe and International Security
Last Updated on: Jan 20, 2025