The Politico-Military Group of the EU Council stated in a draft “Council Guidelines for the European Defence Agency’s (EDA’s) work for 2021”, dated 23 October, addressed to the Political and Security Committee and obtained by EUROPE, that the EU Council should invite the EDA to take forward the implementation of the EU’s capability development priorities.
According to this group, with a view to building a “more coherent, interoperable, deployable and sustainable” European set of capabilities and forces, the EU Council should encourage the EDA to continue its contribution to strengthening the coherence of capability planning, priority setting and defence cooperation.
This should include a regular assessment, together with Member States, of the possible need to revise the Capability Development Plan (CDP) and a support to Member States in the implementation of the recommendations of the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) report, due in November 2020, “notably by taking advantage of concrete opportunities for collaboration and defining priority areas for action in support of capability development and the operational dimension, which will also inform the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the European Defence Fund”. The Agency will also have to launch the CARD cycle 2021-2022.
According to the Politico-Military Group, the EDA will also have to contribute more to the implementation of the PESCO, “which implies continued support from Member States for capacity development and the achievement of concrete results by the end of the second phase of the PESCO in 2025”.
In addition, the EDA should continue to support the development and implementation of projects and activities in the areas of capability development, research and technology and critical factors. The Agency must also ensure structured dialogue and engagement with Member State industries.
The Politico-Military Group wants the agency as well to continue its contributions to the defence aspects of EU policies, including military mobility, cybernetics, hybrids, space, maritime, the Single European Sky, artificial intelligence, but also REACH, energy and the environment, the circular economy and climate change.
Lastly, the text states that “aware of the challenges posed by the current Covid-19 crisis, the EU Council encourages the agency to further strengthen its resilience in terms of information and communication technologies and infrastructures in order to ensure full continuity of activities”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)