On 7 October, EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq met with Pedro Morenés, Spanish Minister of Defence, to exchange views on cooperation opportunities and assess ways to enhance Spain’s involvement in EDA projects. Mr Domecq also visited the EU Satellite Centre for discussions with Director Pascal Legai.
Jorge Domecq and Pedro Morenés had a fruitful exchange of views, especially on different aspects of military aviation and space initiatives currently covered by the Agency. Other topics discussed were the European Tactical Airlift Centre in Zaragoza (this centre will be established in the framework of the Agency’s air transport programme by 2016), EDA's key programme on Government Satellite Communications (GovSatCom) which is led by Spain and other areas of EDA's work such as on Research and Technology. Discussions also covered broader aspects with focus on EDA's role to ensure civil/military synergies aiming to achieve efficiencies, in line with June 2015 Heads of State and Government tasks. Mr Domecq also met with the the Spanish Secretary of State of Defence, the Spanish Deputy Chief of Air Force, as well as the National Armaments Director.
The visit to Madrid also gave occasion to enhance cooperation between the EDA and the European Union Satellite Centre (EU SatCen). Jorge Domecq and Pascal Legai agreed that common challenges in operations should be explored through EDA's expertise on capability development, for example as regards earth observation, on the grounds of the complementary roles of the two agencies. Other topics of discussion were cooperation in space surveillance and tracking, maritime and border surveillance as well as cyber.
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