European Defence Matters

European Defence Matters

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Sharing know-how, building interoperability

The Agency’s expanding training & exercise portfolio - now stretching from helicopter, fixed-wing airlift and RPAS operations to countering improvised explosive devices, cyber defence and energy management - pursues one overarching goal none of its Member States can achieve cost-effectively on its own: to enhance Armed Forces’ interoperability for joint operations, be it under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, NATO or any other format. Yet, at the same time, EDA’s ambition is not to become a permanent training provider. Once specific training gaps at European level are identified and assessed, the Agency helps to jump start and mature a collaborative activity up to the point it can be handed over to a group of Member States. A unique and successful model of European defence cooperation! In the following pages, we put the spotlight on some of EDA’s most prominent training and exercise activities.

In the spotlight

Now more than ever

However disruptive the economic and financial impact of COVID-19 might be, it will not make disappear the need for Member States to strengthen Europe’s full spectrum of defence capabilities, and to do it through cooperation. On the contrary: this crisis makes collaborative capability development even more indispensable and urgent, argues Jiří Šedivý, the European Defence Agency’s new Chief Executive, in the following opinion editorial.


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Future defence budgets should be approached carefully

Member States should bear in mind the important role the defence sector played in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic when tackling the consequences of the crisis, says Tomislav Ivić, the Croatian State Secretary for Defence whose country holds the rotating EU Presidency in the first half of 2020, in the following interview.


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EDF can help alleviate impact for defence industry

What can the European Commission and its new Directorate General for Defence Industry and Space (DEFIS) do to help Europe’s defence industry come through the COVID-19 crisis and its repercussions? We asked Timo Pesonen, DEFIS’ Director General, in the following exclusive interview.


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