The Long-Term Vision report published by the European Defence Agency in October 2006 is designed to serve as a compass for defence planners as they develop the military capabilities the European Security and Defence Policy will require over the next twenty years in an increasingly challenging environment.
The report – the product of 11 months of study involving officials and experts from governments, defence bodies, academia and industry across Europe -- was endorsed by European Union Defence Ministers at a meeting of the EDA Steering Board in Levi, Finland, as a reasonable foundation for the EDA's medium-to-long term agendas.
“This fascinating document offers planners, working their way through the fog of the future, a shared and stimulating analysis of some of the major trends that will shape that future,” said Javier Solana, the Head of the Agency, who chaired the meeting. “It provides shared views on the state of the world in which European Security and Defence Policy operations will take place and on what kind of capabilities will be needed to conduct those operations successfully,” he added.
“Given the lead times typically involved in developing defence capability, decisions we take, or fail to take, today will affect whether we have the right military capabilities, and the right capacities in Europe’s defence technological and industrial base, in the third decade of this century,” Solana said.
The participating Member States (pMS) in the Steering Board noted that the LTV document was explicitly an initial, non committing document. The Steering Board endorsement does not mean that all pMS have agreed all particulars.
To see the full text of the report, click on one of the links below: