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15 juillet 2011 5 15 /07 /juillet /2011 05:45

European Defence Agency

 

13 Jul 2011 By JULIAN HALE DefenseNews

 

BRUSSELS - The European Defence Agency (EDA) is looking into off-the-shelf procurement as a part of an initiative called Effective Procurement Methods. An EDA official said the initiative "is still at its very beginning" but "we hope that member states will have identified first potential pilot cases by the end of the year."

 

"The number of military purchases of off-the-shelf products is increasing," said a July 7 article published by the EDA, following a Web conference of participating member states. "This applies, in particular, to urgent operational requirements and logistical support of EU operations where Armed Forces often rely on third party contractors," wrote Reihard Marak and Carmen Parrilla from the EDA's Industry and Market Directorate.

 

Off-the-shelf procurement refers to existing defense equipment and services (e.g., logistic services) provided by third-party sources, where no further development is needed.

 

"Through the EPM initiative, we are trying to develop together with the member states and other relevant stakeholders ways to identify and shape existing common demand. Some prosperous areas in this regard could be mission-related transport or logistic support, education and training, standard vehicles, ammunition, legacy weapon systems and communication equipment (all of which are named in a recent EU Military Staff Pooling and Sharing report)," said an EDA official.

 

Should member states decide to go ahead with a common procurement, "they could designate a lead nation to procure on behalf of a group of member states or identify an international body as their main contracting agency or central purchasing body," said the EDA source.

 

The EDA is legally and technically (for a limited number of cases) capable of acting as such a central purchasing body. A recent example of this is the common procurement of helicopter training on behalf of six member states.

 

On the question of suppliers, the EDA source said that "it is entirely up to the member states involved in a specific common procurement effort to identify their potential suppliers," but that the EDA "is in favor of solutions that contribute to the maintenance and further development of the European defense technological and industrial base."

 

In a related development, EU member states adopted a decision defining the Statute, Seat and Operational Rules of the EDA.

 

In addition, the EU's defense procurement directive, for which member states have until Aug. 21 to introduce relevant national legislation, states that "member states should also be free to designate European public bodies not subject to this Directive, such as the European Defence Agency, as central purchasing bodies."

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