The French Minister of Defence visited the European Defence Agency today. Jean-Yves Le Drian and a delegation from the French Ministry of Defence received presentations from EDA experts on some of the Agency’s current priority projects: air-to-air refueling, countering improvised explosive devices and Research & Technology. The presentations highlighted the concrete progress made in these Pooling & Sharing workstrands: to combat the most significant threat in current conflicts, IEDs; to maintain Europe’s technological edge in the defence arena; and to ensure European aircraft can operate flexibly and effectively beyond their bases.
The Minister then met with Agency Chief Executive Claude-France Arnould and the EDA’s Directors; they discussed the current state of European defence, and the imperative to take action. In particular, Ms Arnould emphasized the Agency’s flexibility, and openness to supporting bilateral and regional, as well as pan-European defence cooperation – something the Agency achieves through its ‘opt-in’ project structure and constant emphasis on the needs of Member States.
The French Minister of Defence expressed his political support for European defence cooperation, and he emphasized the importance of the Agency’s work in that cause.
Claude-France Arnould commented: “We’re very pleased to have the opportunity to showcase our work to Monsieur Le Drian. I think we both agree that projects like our work on air-to-air refueling will be vital to Europe’s defence in the future.”
Indeed, thanks to the Agency’s recent agreement with OCCAR, projects like air-to-air refueling can now be carried through more effectively, with the smoothest possible handover from concept to procurement.
