The fourth in a series of five meetings of the Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector (CF SEDSS) was held in Lisbon on 16 – 18 May 2017.
The conference was opened by General Henrique Castanheira Macedo – Deputy Director General from the Portuguese Ministry of Defence, Mrs Claudia Canaveri – Deputy Head of Energy Efficiency at DG Energy, and Mr Rini Goos – Deputy Chief Executive at the European Defence Agency. It was closed by Mr Denis Roger – Director European Synergies and Innovation at the European Defence Agency.
“Whatever we do on international defence cooperation and collaboration, it must ultimately be about maintaining our strategic defence objectives, and developing and delivering enhanced military capability, increasing readiness and effectiveness,” EDA Deputy Chief Executive Rini Goos said during his opening address. “We need to ensure that our infrastructure – the backbone of the military – is future-proofed and efficient in its operation so that we can support ultimately, the front line. This is why the Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector is so important – it provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to work together to make a real change in the provision of defence capability and one which can have an enduring legacy, setting a benchmark for the rest of the defence sector.”
Maintaining the momentum of the first, second and third events held in Brussels, Dublin, and Rome in 2016, the third conference was attended by around 100 experts from government administrations representing the majority of EDA Member States, as well as industry, academia, NATO representatives and the European Commission.
In closing the conference, Director European Synergies and Innovation Denis Roger set out, “At this event, it has been useful to take stock of what we have learnt so far to ensure that we keep a focus on defence outputs. We must also not lose sight of where the challenges and opportunities lie; and to start to develop thoughts on how to move forward, but in a way which supports capability development objectives”. Encouraging a sense of urgency, Mr Roger concluded, “We need to become more implementation focused in future, finding solutions to overcoming barriers. We need to start developing and agreeing plans for action, and we need to do it now.”
Background
The Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector is a European Commission initiative managed by the European Defence Agency. It brings together experts from the defence and energy sectors to share information and best practice on improving energy management, energy efficiency, and the use of renewable energy. The Consultation Forum takes place in a series of five plenary meetings over 24 months, concluding in October 2017.
The work is carried out in three parallel working groups each with a particular focus: (1) Energy Management, (2) Energy Efficiency & 3) Renewable Energy.