From 27 to 29 October 2015, an Awareness Level Module of the European Armament Cooperation Course (EAC) is taking place at the European Defence Agency’s premises. Organised by the European Defence Agency (EDA), the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) and the Austrian Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Sports, the course has attracted the highest number of attendees in its four-year history. Forty-six enrolled students represent thirteen EDA Member States, the European Commission, European External Action Service (EEAS) and Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR). 

The aim of the EAC course is to enhance mutual understanding of the armaments cooperation issues and to serve as a useful networking platform to foster and harmonise armaments cooperation among the Member States. Most of all, it addresses junior personnel who need to gain knowledge and experience in international acquisition and project management. The course also complements the curriculums of available national courses. “We believe that the practitioners who work in national and international armament cooperation can highly profit from the course. We are able to provide them with practical knowledge and understanding of the armament sector along with its frameworks, the stakeholders’ tools and processes as well as challenges and benefits available at the EU level,” says Massimo Guasoni, the EDA Head of Unit Education, Training & Exercise.

Towards Europe’s strategic autonomy 

Rini Goos, the EDA Deputy Chief Executive, welcomed the course participants and, in his speech, he pointed out the key elements for European strategic autonomy and freedom of action: “Apart from working on capabilities, first of all, we must strive to enhance investment in traditional defence research, particularly in collaborative Research & Technology. Secondly, we need a sound European industrial policy. Thirdly, I would like to mention standardisation: a pan-European standardisation approach is the key to increase European competiveness on a global scale and to strengthen the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base Strategy; it is also the main driver for interoperability. And last but not least, civil-military ‘dual-use’ synergies need to be better exploited. It is only if we move ahead along these four strands of work that Europe will be able to attain strategic autonomy and become a security provider rather than a security consumer”.  

Brussels - 18 December, 2014 European Defence Agency

The European Defence Agency (EDA) and the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) held a special joint academic session yesterday at EDA premises to mark the Agency’s 10-year anniversary. The event gathered over 150 participants.

“We decided to have an academic session because we wanted not only to celebrate, but also to debate about how we see the role EDA and the development of European defence capabilities in the future”, EDA Chief Executive Claude-France Arnould underlined in her opening remarks. This was echoed by Hans-Bernhard Weisserth, Head of ESDC: “Celebrating anniversaries is a great opportunity to look back, but we also need to think about the way ahead”, he stressed.

Food for thought

Moderated by Sven Biscop, Director of the Egmont Institute, two panel discussions were held. The first one was dedicated to the geopolitical and economic context of European defence cooperation. “The EDA was founded in an era of extraordinary optimism for EU cooperation”, recalled Nick Witney, Senior Fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations and former EDA Chief Executive (2004-2007). “But now more than ever, in these times of budget austerity, we need to make the maximum use of the Common Security and Defence Policy”, he added. 

“We need a collective approach to crisis management”, underlined Jamie Shea, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges. “EDA and NATO can really work on synergies thank to the good cooperation we have in place”, he said. Meanwhile, Joylon Howorth from Yale University pointed out that Europe needs “a credible and autonomous military deterrent”  if it wants to fully play its role of regional power.

Capability development

The second session focused on capability development. Tim Rowntree, OCCAR Director, provided examples of tangible cooperation programs at EU-level and pointed out that the Organisation stood “ready to bring to support the collaborative programs of tomorrow”. Meanwhile, Claude-France Arnould made the case for increased cooperation through the European Defence Agency: “Cooperation through EDA is not a threat to sovereignty”, she stressed, “and the Agency has been specifically designed to allow cooperation from two Member States upwards”. 

Brooks Tigner, Security Europe editor and EU/NATO Affairs Analyst for IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, suggested that “the upcoming Preparatory Action for CSDP-related research could have a real effect in boosting EU defence capabilities”. 

A unique book

The event also gave Claude-France Arnould an opportunity to roll-out the special book published by the Agency to commemorate EDA’s 10-year anniversary. “This is the result of several months of archive research, interviews with key actors from inside and outside the Agency, as well as external contributions from various high-level European defence experts”, she underlined. 

Titled “10 Years of Working Together”, the book is divided into three main sections covering the history of the Agency, its main success stories and independent viewpoints from key government, military and industry leaders. You can discover the digital version of this book by following this link. Chapters dedicated to the history of the Agency are available here and here.

More information

• Conference Agenda
• 10 Years of Working Together: the Book
• The European Security and Defence College

A three-day European Armaments Cooperation Course started 28 Oct. at the European Defence Agency (EDA) in Brussels.

More than 40 participants from sixteen EDA Member States and Serbia, as well as the European Commission, the European Parliament, the EU Military Staff (EUMS) and the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR), started a three-day European Armaments Cooperation Course. This course, the third of its kind, is organised jointly by EDA and the European Security and Defence College (ESDC). It is divided into two parts: the Awareness Level, now ongoing in Brussels, and the Expert Level, which will take place from 24 to 28 November in Prague, Czech Republic.

The course is intended primarily for practitioners working in national and international armament cooperation who need to gain knowledge and experience in European acquisition and project management. It aims to provide them with a better understanding of frameworks, stakeholders, tools, and processes of European armaments cooperation, as well as its many benefits and challenges.

Learning from each other

As the EDA Deputy Chief Executive, Rini Goos, said today: “We, in Europe, need to be clear on how we work together, learning from each other and tackling co-operation from a European perspective. This is essential and in the long-term I would like to see a common understanding and approach emerge, supported where required through training and education courses like this one. This is where I see the EDA adding the most value and impact; improving the delivery of future European military capabilities to make the Common Security and Defence Policy more credible in line with the 2013 European Council conclusions.”

EDA's work in this domain started in 2006 when the Agency commissioned a study on cooperative lessons learned. Best practice and education were shortlisted among key enablers for cooperative programmes. The topic received widespread support from Member States and in 2007 the EDA Steering Board, in National Armaments Directors configuration, directed the Agency to focus in particular on education in European armaments acquisitions.

Education and training platform

In 2009, the Czech Republic’s EU Presidency supported the creation of a new European armaments cooperation course; providing an EU-wide education and/or training platform where a common understanding of a European approach to armaments cooperation can be promoted and nurtured. EDA Member States welcomed the initiative and later that year the EDA Steering Board, in National Armaments Directors configuration, approved the top-level European Armaments Co-operation (EAC) Framework, under which the current course has been established.

In 2013, thanks to the initiative of Austria and other like-minded countries, including the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the course took its current form. It followed the success of the pilot European Armaments Cooperation Course organised in Brussels and Stadtschlaining in 2012.

A real and urgent need

Giampaolo Lillo, EDA Cooperation Planning and Support Director, said: “The technical, legal and administrative complexities of cooperation programmes – and the lack of expertise on how to tackle them – appear to be part of the reason why the potential of European armament cooperation remains largely untapped. This is why I think this course aims at the right target, responding to a real and urgent need. Apart from the obvious interest to practitioners, it is also very useful for anybody involved in the legislative process at EU level.”

EDA, in its effort to offer Member States the most effective and tailored support to enhance their interoperability, upon its restructuring created in the Cooperation Planning and Support Directorate a dedicated Education, Training and Exercises Unit to address education and training activities in an harmonised way. This course is one of its outcomes.

More information

European Security and Defence College website