Following the invitation by Mr. François Gayet, Secretary General of the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD), Ms. Claude-France Arnould will attend the ASD Board and Council members meetings on 14 April, in Brussels.
Ms. Arnould will brief the ASD Members on EDA’s approach to maintaining and developing the European Industrial and Technological capabilities needed to meet Europe’s future military requirements. The challenge is to maximise the scarce resources for strategically focused investment. A concerted approach by European governments and industries will be important. Initiatives like Pooling & Sharing and exploiting synergies with the Commission in the European Framework Cooperation, also offer the potential for delivering positive results.
Background: The ASD Board consists of 28 NDIA’s from 20 countries (not all EDA members, but including Norway, Turkey and Switserland), representing over 2000 companies with more than 650.000 employees and over € 130 bln revenues. The ASD Council consists of the major Aerospace and Defence companies in Europe: Airbus, Astrium, BAE Systems, Cassidian, Cobham, Dassault, Diehl, Fincantieri, Finmeccanica, GKN, MBDA, Rellumix, Rheinmetall, Rolls Royce, SAAB, Safran, Thales.