Defence Ministers met today at EDA’s Ministerial Steering Board (in virtual format) under the chairmanship of the Head of the Agency, High Representative Josep Borrell.
Ministers were presented with the final report of the first cycle of the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) developed by the European Defence Agency in close coordination with the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the EU Military Staff (EUMS) over the past 12 months. The report, approved today by Ministers, draws for the first time a comprehensive picture of the European defence landscape based on information gathered by Member States on their national defence spending and capability development plans, and identifies more than 100 collaborative opportunities to be taken up by Member States in six main focus areas.
The CARD is designed to serve as a pathfinder for new collaborative programmes and to lead over time to more synergies and increased coherence between Member States´ defence planning, spending and capability development, through cooperation. The findings and recommendations of the first CARD report can be found here.
2021 Budget
Ministers adopted the proposal made by the Head of the Agency, Josep Borrell, setting the Agency’s 2021 general budget at €37.5 million. The budget reflects the continuous high demands on the Agency to support Member States in the development of defence capabilities as well as the implementation of EU defence initiatives such as CARD, the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the European Defence Fund (EDF).
Three-Year Planning Framework
Ministers also approved EDA’s Three-Year Planning Framework (2021-2023) which provides a coherent and comprehensive overview of the Agency’s activities structured around the three chapters reflecting its core taskings: - prioritising and planning defence cooperation; - supporting technology and capability development; - facilitating the interface with wider EU policies. Each chapter of the Planning Framework elaborates on key activities which EDA is undertaking, providing an overview of the nature, scope and expected impact of the Agency’s activities in support of overarching policy objectives and the added value for Member States.