“Let there be an agency”: EDA’s birth and the ‘irresistible logic’ of defence cooperation

In London in the spring of 2004, Nick Witney’s suitcase was packed, ready for an extended stay in Brussels. Having already worked on the concept of a European Union ‘back office’ to follow through on EU’s political ambitions for defence, Witney, then Director-General for International Security Policy at Britain’s Ministry of Defence, was well-placed to lead a new agency. There was just one snag. In Paris, a senior French defence official was also waiting for the all-clear to take up the same post.

“I was sitting on a packed suitcase, waiting for the then EU High Representative Javier Solana to decide between myself and a French candidate who was also sitting on a packed suitcase,” he recalls.

His rival was just as well qualified, Witney adds, and Solana was reluctant to choose, hoping France and Britain could agree between them. “It was one of those things where two governments lock horns over which of them should have this honour and privilege,” he says. Eventually, France stepped back. “I got summoned,” Witney says.

It was a heady time to be in Brussels for those in favour of European integration. “It’s almost impossible to realise now the sense of optimism and ambition which was felt within the European Union as the start of the millennium,” he asserts. And not only because of agreement on a first-ever European Security and Defence Policy, following the Saint Malo Declaration of 1998. The euro had just been introduced, the Union was taking on 10 new Member States following the fall of communist regimes across central and eastern Europe, and EU governments were eager to join the new Battlegroups initiative. “Everyone was desperate to get on board.”

There was a less glamourous side to setting up EDA. “We had a lot of tedious stuff to do,” Witney says. A free hand in deciding EDA’s exact role was a blessing and a curse. The EU summit in 2003 in Thessaloniki, Greece, had called for an ‘agency in the field of defence capabilities development, research, acquisition and armaments’. “After it was said ‘let there be an agency’, the design was up to us,” Witney says.

On 12 July 2004, the day Member States formally adopted the Council Joint Action 2004/551/CFSP on the establishment of the Agency, Witney was putting together his embryonic staff. The EDA’s Steering Board, made up of Ministers of Defence from each Member State, met for the first time in autumn 2004. By the end of 2004, the Agency was up and running in temporary offices before moving to its own building in 2005.

Euro-optimism to financial crisis

Crucially, EDA was to be an ‘intergovernmental’ agency, directly funded and controlled by the EU Member States who joined. (Following Denmark’s decision to join EDA in 2023, all EU countries are in.) “We began a process of projects, which were signed up to with a lot of enthusiasm,” remembers Witney.

For instance, the groundwork began for what later became the EU Satellite Communications (SatCom) market. “We began thinking about gaps in air-to-air fuelling, which later became the multi-role tanker transport MRTT fleet. In 2006, the joint investment programme on force protection began.”

Well before the European Commission 2024 proposals for a European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS), Witney says EDA set out a strategy to promote a defence industry functioning on a continental scale, no longer spending in protected national silos. “While the broader European defence project may have fallen short of its early ambitions, EDA stands as a testament to what can be achieved through cooperation and dedication ... I feel like a proud parent.”

Tougher times were to come, however, most notably the global financial crisis from 2007 and the ensuing euro zone crisis of 2009, when EU governments were forced to dramatically slash defence budgets. That essentially led to the renationalisation of European defence, even if EDA’s work continued, pushing ahead with maritime surveillance MARSUR, the EU SatCom market and joint procurement of Carl-Gustav ammunition, to name just a few projects.

Unfinished symphony

Witney’s team of directors and staff also helped lay the ground for EDA’s overarching vision today: pooling efforts and resources; harmonising project requirements to meet military needs; developing research and technology; and providing publicly available defence spending data and priorities for capability development that serve to guide Member States.

What was true then is still true today about EU defence, Witney says. He talks of an “irresistible force of logic” for EU countries’ militaries, industries and governments cooperating. While defence is and will remain a national responsibility of the EU’s 27 countries, EDA was created to help its members buy, develop and operate new assets together, helping to save money, allowing militaries to work closely together and reinforcing NATO.

But standardising equipment is not easy. Industrial interests are always at play. Member States prefer to buy nationally. So, for Witney, that irresistible force of logic often meets with what he describes as “immovable object of vested national interests”. “I do have a sense of disappointment that, over the past 20 years, Member States who agreed so clearly and fulsomely at ministerial level that pooling and sharing were essential — and linked to how the technological and industrial base develops — have not held true to those truths which I think they still subscribe to,” he says.

European defence cooperation is gaining momentum again, Witney says. “The European Defence Fund has been a success. It’s not huge, but it is a way of encouraging more cooperation amongst Member States, even if there is some irony in that the Commission nudges the states with their own money, as the fund’s money comes out the EU budget.”

Safe from harm?

Depending on how the war in Ukraine progresses and, of course, which U.S. president is in the White House in January of 2025, change will come. “If the United States follows through on its often-expressed intention to scale back, Europeans will be panicked into realising that they need to be more proactive about their own defence,” Witney says. “Europeans, who already spend massively more on defence, could make themselves more secure if they cooperate and save more.”

Could this spark a realisation that the short-term needs demonstrated by the Ukraine war, such as building defence and industrial capacity rapidly, must be addressed collectively and urgently? EDA is seeking to play a central role in this process, especially with ammunition.

“Ultimately, EDA depends on the decisions made by national capitals,” Witney says. “It is only when capitals do more than just talk about collaboration that EDA can forge ahead.”

To listen to a podcast with Jirí Šedivý and Nick Witney:

To listen to more podcast episodes: https://eda.europa.eu/news-and-events/podcast