European Defence Ministers met today, in Brussels, in the EDA Steering Board.

Following their discussion in the Foreign Affairs Council, Ministers addressed current and future EDA activities on Pooling & Sharing. They tasked EDA to produce, in close cooperation with the EU Military Committee and other EU actors, proposals on how European Pooling & Sharing could be taken forward for presentation in the autumn. Ministers also addressed two specific Pooling & Sharing projects: European Air Transport Fleet and Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices.

They decided to launch an “European Air Transport Fleet” (EATF) category A project. The signature of the EATF Letter of Intent on 17 November 2009 by fourteen Ministers of Defence (1) expressed the clear political will to move forward and enhance efforts to increase the military airlift provision within Europe. Today, this pooling & sharing initiative took a further step forward through the signature of a Programme Arrangement by seventeen (2) Ministers of Defence.

Nine (3) Ministers also signed a Technical Arrangement concerning the deployment of The Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) Theatre Exploitation Laboratory. Roadside bombs and other explosive devices are the number-one killer of deployed forces in crisis management operations. The Laboratory is on schedule to deploy, under a French national lead, in support of the NATO ISAF operation in Afghanistan this summer and will develop wider capabilities required for the exploitation of C-IED information.

“These two Arrangements are tangible manifestations of the Agency’s added value. The EATF Programme will increase efficiency and effectiveness across the range of logistics, training, administration and capacity utilisation. The C-IED Laboratory will help in identifying and countering the supply chain of Improvised Explosive Devices, which are the cause of so many casualties in Afghanistan. I am convinced that both of these initiatives represent a step-change in European cooperation”, said Claude-France Arnould, EDA’s Chief Executive.

Ministers also discussed the Implications of EU Policies on Defence: the EU Radio Spectrum Policy Programme, the European Defence Equipment Market, the European Space Policy, the Commission Consultation on an Industrial Policy for Security Industry, the Single European Sky Air traffic management Research and the Commission Consultation on a Common Strategic Framework for Future EU Research and Innovation Funding. These European Commission initiatives will have implications for the Ministries of Defence and Armed Forces of EU Member States. Ministers agreed that the EDA was well-placed to continue to monitor developments and to represent defence interests as necessary.

(1) Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden plus Romania, who signed a few months later.

(2) Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.

(3) Austria, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden.