Kaja Kallas canceled the establishment of the high-level group on defense

The inauguration party for the new group was planned for Monday morning, but Kallas decided to cancel it on Sunday. The reason for this decision was pressure from some member states, which believed that creating a group "is not the right course of action at the moment," Brussels media report.

What was the group supposed to do?

Just last week, during an informal meeting of EU defense ministers in Ireland, the head of EU diplomacy announced that she would gather "the brightest minds" and establish a high-level group on defense. It was to include high-ranking former political and military leaders from several EU countries, but also from Great Britain and Ukraine.

The group was to look for unconventional ways to fill gaps in European defense capabilities as quickly as possible and present its ideas in a report containing specific recommendations.

Who was supposed to be in the group?

The group's presentation was to take place on Monday morning in Brussels, and approximately 150 people from EU institutions, think tanks, academia and NATO were expected to participate in the event. As reported by Politico on Monday, although Kallas's office did not reveal the names of the group's members, unofficial reports indicate that the group was to be chaired by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and would include former defense ministers such as Juri Luik of Estonia, who also served as ambassador to NATO, and Florence Parly of France, a former minister of the armed forces.