Jorge Domecq, EDA’s Chief Executive, was in Warsaw on Wednesday (27 April) for talks with Polish Minister of Defence Antoni Macierewicz, Defence Secretary of State Bartosz Kownacki, as well as other senior officials in the MoD.
Mr Domecq also met with the head of the Sejm’s National Defence Committee, Michal Jach. It was the first encounter of Mr Domecq with the new Polish Defence minister since the change of government in November 2015.
Discussions mainly focused on Poland’s current and potential future contributions to EDA projects and programmes, the general state of play in European defence cooperation as well as several upcoming events such as the publication of the new EU Global Strategy in June, the Warsaw NATO summit in July and the European Commission’s Defence Action Plan expected to be presented by the end of this year.
Mr Domecq welcomed Poland’s strong involvement in EDA, in particular in the MRTT programme (Air-to-Air Refuelling) and encouraged the country to continue fostering its engagement in European defence cooperation projects in the future.
Polish Defence minister Macierewicz indicated he would fully commit to increase the engagement of Poland in EDA towards more cooperative programmes and support to defence industry: this would be part of the interest of Poland to address the security challenges that Europe is facing.
Defence Secretary of State Kownacki said: “Cooperation with EDA is an important direction for Poland, and our involvement in different initiatives is increasing. We see the added value of the Agency’s work on many issues and support it as a forum for discussion and real cooperation”.