Brussels, 27/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - What are the main global trends leading up to 2025 and what will the EU need, especially in military terms, to deal with the situation? The European Defence Agency (EDA) will be seeking to answer these questions in a 25-page document that it is to present to European Union Defence Ministers meeting in Kittilä, Finland, on 2 and 3 October.
Meeting within the EDA Steering Board on the fringe of the informal meeting in Kittilä, EU Defence Ministers will hold a first exchange of views on the document prepared by the EDA, containing contributions by the EU Military Committee and the EU Institute for Security Studies, in Paris. The document in question is not a political paper but rather an evaluation which, based on the study of major developing trends (population, environment, energy), analyses the different situations (especially the different kinds of conflicts) that the EU may have to come to grips with in the run up to 2025. It goes on to outline the requirements of a European defence policy to deal with situations as they arise. The document should above all place emphasis on research and technology in defence as well as on the need to ensure interoperability, mobility and sustainability of forces, a European source told AN. It should also underline the need to maintain an industrial defence base in Europe and stress complementarity with the Headline Goal 2010 which defines EU military capability needs in the run up to 2010, the same source said.
EU Defence Ministers are also expected to establish the EDA's financial framework for the next three years (2007-2009) and give suggestions on its work programme during this period. They will take stock of the programme set in place by the EDA concerning force protection, to be launched end 2006, early 2007. Nearly 16 EU Member States are said to be willing to take part in this programme with financial contributions totalling €50 million. (Source: our publication Atlantic News).