Brussels, 19/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - - On Monday 19 November, EU defence ministers approved the budget of the European Defence Agency (EDA) for 2008, along with objectives and methods for achieving a better collective performance for national defence investment.
With an operating budget of €20 million (compared with €17 million in 2007) and an operations budget of €6 million (compared with €5 million in 2007), the adopted budget is much higher than the 2007 budget, although the EDA has not managed to obtain multi-annual budget planning (over three years). In 2008, the EDA will have a total budget of €32 million, including €6 million earmarked for work on Unmanned Air Vehicles, which can only be spent after a further decision by the Steering Board. In 2007, the EDA had a budget of €22 million.
The member states agreed to a less binding version of the benchmarking system for the defence investment proposed by the EDA in 2007. Instead of the targets to be met at national level, member states have agreed to modest collective objectives of: equipment procurement to account for 20% of defence spending (as opposed to 19.4% at present); for European collaborative equipment procurement to account for 35% of equipment procurement expenditure (currently 21%); for defence R&T to account for 2% of defence spending (currently 1.2%); and for European collaborative defence R&T to account for 20% of defence R&T spending (currently 10%). The member states will contribute to these objectives on a voluntary basis.
“I welcome the fact that the ministers have approved the increase of the budget”, said Javier Solana, adding that with this decision, together with the adoption of the working programme of the Agency for 2008, the strategic framework for research and development and the objectives for the collective expenditure would be assured. “We are well placed to equip our armed forces for their crisis management missions. I know that the Member States will continue with these efforts and take advantage of all cooperation opportunities allowing us to reinforce the military capacities of the European Union. We know that without national investment decisions in the short, medium and long terms, none of the progress we are calling for can be achieved”, he concluded. (A.By)