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THE PORTUGUESE NAVY PRESIDES

THE MULTILATERAL FORUM CHENS

CHIEFS OF EUROPEAN NAVIES - CHENS 2019 - LISBON

During the 2018 CHENS Conference, hosted in Helsinki, on May 18 , Finland handed the Chairmanship of this forum over to Portugal
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for a period of 12 months. The CHENS initiatives will culminate with the CHENS Conference in Lisbon on May 10 , 2019.
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BACKGROUND land, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Nor-
way, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey,
Since 1990 the Chiefs of European Navies meet once a year to and United Kingdom. The United States Navy, represented by the
address maritime/naval issues in order to increase awareness of Commander of the United States Naval Forces Europe and Africa
the maritime domain in member countries, seeking to promote and (USNAVEUR-USNAVAF), NATO, represented by International Mil-
deepen a common and mutual understanding of the issues exam- itary Staff (IMS) and Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) and
ined. The CHENS forum allows participants to meet at a bi-lateral European Union, represented by the European Union Military
level fostering the existing formal relations between the Navies, Staff (EUMS) also participate in the forum as observers.
which are subsequently materialized through the Naval Staff Talks. Chairmanship changes annually on a rotational basis between
This forum is formed by the Navies of European Union and Northern and Southern European countries. The long term
NATO members: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, scheduling allows a wider spectrum of countries to host the
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ire- event. In accordance with the plan of presidencies, approved in
2010, Portugal will host the CHENS Conference in 2019.
The forum is organized according to the CHENS Activities Guide-
lines (CAG), and is supported by the Points of Contact (POC) of
the participant Navies. The CHENS POC COMMITTEE (CPC) meets
yearly to discuss the agenda and the Workstrands for the next
Conference. The POC involved in the preparation of the presi-
dency are responsible for organising the Troika meeting – for-
mer, current and following presidencies. This meeting focuses
on analysing and discussing the experience of the former Chair
of CHENS; furthermore, it allows the identification of best prac-
tices and contributes to a sustained improvement of the quality
standards of the works conducted during the preparation of the
CHENS Conference.
CHENS’ COAT OF ARMS

CHENS’ Coat of Arms consists of the terrestrial globe, including
the coordinates and the contours of the European continent. The
focus is the ‘staranchor’ as the symbol of the Navies which also
highlights the maritime gravity of CHENS. The stars in the anchor
represent the high rank of the CHENS members. The symmetry
of both stars portray the heraldic finesse of the Coat of Arms. The
written designation ‘CHENS CHIEFS OF EUROPEAN NAVIES’ forms
the framework of the logo. The predominant colour is held in
white and maritime blue upon which the text and the gold-yellow
anchor, like the stripes of the Navy uniforms, form the contrast.

CHENS 2019 – LISBON

Portugal was the chair of this forum in 1993. Twenty six years
later, the Portuguese Navy holds the presidency of this forum
again. It has organized two initiatives to prepare the 2019 CHENS
Conference: the Troika meeting in September 2018, and the CPC
Conference in November 2018, where Montenegro’s member-
ship of the CHENS Forum was approved.
The 2019 CHENS event will start on Thursday, May 9 , when the
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Chiefs of European Navies will be received in audience by His Excel-
lency the President of the Republic.

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