Brussels, 15/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - Ministers of the 26 states participating in the European Defence Agency Steering Board will take stock of the main work underway when they meet in Brussels on Monday 18 May:
1) Strategic transport: Creation of the European Air Transport Fleet (EATF) has moved slowly since a declaration of intent was signed in November 2008 by 12 member states. The next stage should be the signing of a letter of intent at the next ministerial steering board meeting in November 2009. More precisely, the letter of intent should specify the objectives and the main principles of the initiative, which should cover all kinds of aircraft and not just the Airbus A400M. Member states should also endorse a broad approach that could cover joint acquisition of new transport capabilities, groups of member states for maintenance or training activities, and the exchange of flight hours.
2) Helicopters: Ministers will take stock of pilot training conducted by the EDA (20 Czech pilots have already benefitted from training with a view to their deployment as part of the NATO military operation in Afghanistan), and modernisation of Mi-17 and Puma helicopters. After a silence procedure, they will make official the agreement whereby the programme for developing the future heavy transport helicopter will be entrusted to EDA in the form of a category B project. A study phase should be rapidly launched, lasting about three years. During the annual EDA conference, Javier Solana had called on the United States to show an interest in the project, as the needs of European states hardly exceed 200 to 300 aircraft.
3) MUSIS: The EDA, which has been entrusted with part of the work concerning the future satellite observation programme of six member states (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Greece) has begun work on: (1) extending the programme to other member states (two have shown an interest at this very early stage), (2) identifying the needs of potential EU users in the context of an ESDP operation, and (3) identifying possible synergies with GMES/Kopernikus.
4) BIO-EDEP: The EDA is to launch a new programme known as BIO-EDEP which aims to give soldiers better protection against biological agents, including at the level of detection, identification and surveillance. The aim is in time to develop a new generation system. The cost of such a programme is estimated at €100 million. The study phase is expected to last 20 months.
5) Cooperation between EDA and framework programme: Discussions are underway with the European Commission with a view to establishing a framework allowing better coordination of work under the framework programme for research and EDA research activities (such synergies already exist for a number of projects such as radio software).
Ministers should also hold an exchange of views on amending the joint action that establishes the agency with a view to replacing the current three-year budgetary programming system (as rules on EDA budget development are too inflexible) towards a sliding programme that, although remaining valid for three years, would be reviewed annually on the basis of the EDA work programme. (O.J./transl.jl)