Participation of Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Stavros Costopoulos Fellow at ELIAMEP, in a meeting of the Venusberg Group, which in March 2009 commenced a new project aiming to produce a European Briefing Book on Security and Defence for the next European Parliament (2009-2014). The goal of this project conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation is to nurture the debate about how the newly elected EP can contribute even stronger to the shaping and implementation of the EU’s foreign, security and defence policy. In the framework of this first project meeting the Venusberg Group also met with a number of Members of the European Parliament (EP) and with representatives from other EU institutions and think tanks to brainstorm about current and future key issues on the EU’s foreign, security and defence policy agenda. The Venusberg Group is a high-level group of security and defence experts from across Europe brought together by the Bertelsmann Foundation to examine the future of EU security policy. The Group was formed in early 1999 following a meeting that took place on the Venusberg near Bonn, close to the Petersberg where in 1992 European leaders established the basis for EU defence. Since then the Group has published a number of reports: Revitalizing the Transatlantic Security Partnership (published in 2009 jointly with the Rand Corporation), Beyond 2010. European Grand Strategy in a Global Age (2007),  A European Defence Strategy (2004), and Enhancing the European Union as an International Security Actor (2000). Members of the Venusberg Group include: Franco Algieri, Head of Research, Austrian Institute for Euroopean and Security Policy (ÖIES), Vienna; Thomas Bauer, Research Fellow, Bertelsmann Group for Policy Research, Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP), Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich; Yves Boyer, Deputy Director, Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), Paris, Associate Professor, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris; Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Stavros Costopoulos Research Fellow, ELIAMEP, Athens; Jolyon Michael Howorth, Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics at the University of Bath, Visiting Professor of Political Science at Yale University, New Haven, CT; Josef Janning, Senior Director, Bertelsmann Stiftung, Guetersloh; Sir Paul Lever, Chairman, The Royal United Sevices Institute (RUSI), Whitehall, London; Julian Lindley-French, Professor of Military Operational Art and Science, Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, Senior Associate Fellow, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham; Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Brussels, former Polish Minister of National Defence, Warsaw; Stefano Silvestri, Professor; President, International Affairs Institute (IAI), Rome, former Italian Under-Secretary of State for Defence, Rome; Stefani Weiss, Director, Europe’s Future / International Governance, Bertelsmann Stiftung, Brussels; Rob de Wijk, Director, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS), The Hague.