European Defence Agency

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WHAT WE DO

The European Defence Agency (EDA) supports its 27 Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative, capability projects, the Agency has become the ‘hub’ for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks allowing it to cover the whole spectrum.

EU defence initiatives
Capability development
Research & technology
Industry engagement
EU policies
Training & exercises
Enablers
Support to Operations

EU defence initiatives

EDA plays an important support and implementation role in all the EU defence initiatives. These tools are designed to raise the EU’s level of ambition; through the Capability Development Plan (CDP), Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and European Defence Fund (EDF).

Capability development

One of the main tasks of the Agency is to support the Member States in the development of cooperative defence capability projects in the air, land, maritime, cyber or space domain.

Research & technology

EDA promotes and supports defence research at EU level. Based on the Overarching Strategic Research Agenda (OSRA), developed together with the Member States, the Directorate coordinates and plans joint research activities and the study of technical solutions to meet future operational needs.

Industry engagement

EDA is responsible for the effective engagement with industry across the Agency’s activities and in support of related priorities set by Member States. EDA also supports industry access to information, business opportunities and EU tools (including funding) with special focus on SMEs.

EU policies

EDA facilitates work to address the implications of EU legislation and policies for the defence sector: REACH, procurement, funding instruments and the analysis of developments influencing governmental and industrial stakeholders.

Training & exercises

EDA initiates, develops and manages training and exercise activities for rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including RPAS, cyber defence, counter-IEDs and energy management.

Enablers

EDA helps Member States coordinate and advance work on critical enablers which support defence cooperation and enhance interoperability such as: military airworthiness, standardisation and certification, defence test & evaluation.

Support to Operations

Work includes promotion of use of relevant EDA projects & programmes in CSDP missions and operations as well as development and management of contracted solutions to support CSDP operations in areas such as satellite communications and CIS, aero medical evacuation, management of human resources etc.