Claude-France Arnould, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency and General Jean-Paul Paloméros, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, NATO were invited to jointly brief the members of the European Parliament’s security and defence subcommittee on 3 June.
In her introduction, Claude-France Arnould stressed the need for greater effectiveness of defence cooperation in the context of defence budget cuts. She specified that investment in Research & Development, attention to security of supply and increased synergies between community and defence policies were crucial. Claude-France Arnould also mentioned some of the Agency’s Pooling & Sharing initiatives which successfully close European defence capability gaps in areas such as air-to-air refuelling, governmental satellite communications and traffic insertion of remotely piloted aircraft systems. General Paloméros stressed the strategic ties between EDA and NATO SACT in improving defence capabilities; key areas of common interest were air-to-air refuelling and future solutions for remotely piloted aircraft systems. He also insisted that Europe needed to increasingly become a security provider rather than just a security user.
Members of the European Parliament were in the following exchange of views interested in the state of preparation for the upcoming European Council dealing with defence topics; Arnaud Danjean, chairman of the subcommittee, highlighted the importance of Pooling & Sharing and showed concern for the involvement of all Member States in cooperative programmes and the full commitment of Member States to defence cooperation.
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