The Steering Board of the European Defence Agency, responding to orientations considered byleaders of the European Union at this week’s Brussels summit, today endorsed plans to make 2006 a year of particular focus on promoting European defence Research & Technology.
At their informal meeting at Hampton Court on 1 November, the EU leaders had asked Javier Solana – High Representative for European Security and Defence Policy and Head of the EDA – to report to the summit on how to improve defence capabilities by increasing levels of research spending, finding opportunities for research collaboration and tackling capability gaps.
“The Steering Board is fully behind this agenda and intends to take it forward with vigour,” said Dirk Ellinger, Research & Technology Director in the German Defence Ministry, who chaired the meeting on behalf of Solana.
The Steering Board, the principal decision-making body of the EDA which was meeting in the formation of R&T Directors of its 24 participating Member States, discussed how to achieve a comprehensive strategy for defence R&T in Europe.
Historically, European defence R&T cooperation has worked by looking for common ground between approaches and priorities which are set nationally. The Steering Board agreed that, as a further dimension, such cooperation required a top-down, jointly-developed view of where Member States collectively should be going, and which technologies had to be preserved or developed in Europe.
The Steering Board also highlighted a number of technology areas which will be critical for helping the European Union to develop the capabilities it needs for future peace-keeping and crisis management operations under the European Security and Defence Policy. These cover areas such as robotics, information fusion, fuel cells and unmanned land, sea and air vehicles.
The Steering Board agreed that these areas should be prioritised for new joint R&T projects.
“The United States is out-spending Europe by a ratio of five to one in defence R&D, and less than five per cent of what we do spend in Europe is spent collaboratively,” said EDA Chief Executive Nick Witney.
“The engagement of the European Heads of State and Government on this issue represents an unprecedented opportunity,” he added.
As part of that process the European Defence Agency is organising a defence R&T conference in Brussels on 9 February 2006.