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Summary

European defence standardisation contributes to the advancement of joint and collaborative defence capabilities and serves as a strategic instrument for bolstering cooperation between EDA participating Member States. It stands as a critical enabler for an efficient European defence equipment market, fortifying the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB). EDA standardisation activities support these efforts by referencing Best Practice Standards in EDSTAR with the overarching goal of harmonising standards across Member States. As a critical enabler for cooperation in Europe, European Defence Standardisation is as an integral element of any defence activities.

Objectives

EDA standardisation supports capability development by:

Raising awareness on the benefits of standardisation.
Selecting Best-Practice Standards, supporting standard as well as hybrid standard development and federating European defence standardisation needs with EDSTAR.
Mastering the whole portfolio of standards, taking into account the EU's defence needs, harmonising Member States' positions, ensuring a common approach to implementation and monitoring the standardisation activities of EU stakeholders.
Interacting at global level, spreading the European defence vision and contributing to standardisation-related activities.

Activities

EDA's standardisation activities cover the following objectives and are carried out under the governance of EDA Member States in close cooperation with European defence standardisation stakeholders, to:

Support the harmonisation of defence standards in:
- EDA activities
- PESCO activities
- EU initiatives
Identifying and addressing standardisation gaps:
- Addressing the development of standards by relevant SDOs
- Support innovation
Training and education

EDSTAR

The European Defence Standards Reference System (EDSTAR) is the EDA central Database containing references to “Best-practice” standards (BPS) in support of European security and defence programmes, organisations, and agencies, with a focus on the following users:

Programme Managers and experts in security and defence procurement organizations (national and multinational), who have to select standards when drafting staff requirements or technical specifications for defence capabilities all along their life cycles;
Programme Managers and experts in industry who recommend to their customers standards for a given security and defence contract or who have to specify standards to be implemented by their subcontractors.

The BPS are standards or “standard-like” specifications, which have been selected by consensus among experts from industry and governmental organisations within EDSTAR Expert Groups (EDSTAR EGs) or EDA project. EDSTAR BPS selected are intended to be the best reliable and applicable standards for defence purposes in the EU. Each Expert Group report is associated to an EDSTAR technical domain and contains the experts’ recommendations promoting their selection of BPS. Along with the rationale backing up their selection, they provide advice regarding the BPS applications and expectations for future advice on standardisation to optimise effectiveness, efficiency and interoperability of security and defence materiel, products, and services.

Expert Groups

The best practice standards referenced in EDSTAR are selected by groups of experts managed by EDA. EDA issues an annual call for experts. The expert groups operate on an annual cycle, starting in December and ending the following December. The groups meet regularly throughout the year to discuss and reach consensus on best practice standards. Experts are nominated by Member States and include representatives from defence ministries or industry.

Standardisation in support to EDA projects

The Project Management Standardisation Plan (PSMP) describes actions that EDA project officers should implement in the life-cycle of a project. It is a Multi-Domain Analysis of Standards, technical specifications, and standard-like documents used in a project, transposing its requirements into a list and a report, applicable to the project. PSMP can result in identifying standards to be proposed as “Best-Practice” Standards in EDSTAR.

Industry Engagement (with EDA Member States Industries)

Engagement with industry is crucial to achieving the defence standardisation objectives, and takes place at several levels:

Industries are an integral part of EDS governance under the nomination of national MoDs.
Industry representatives actively participate in Expert Groups to select Best Practice Standards.
Industry representatives are invited to standardisation training