BRUSSELS - The European Defence Agency (EDA) is keen to discuss the Franco-British Defence Cooperation Treaty with France and to see how Germany could contribute, an EDA official said.
"In some areas of capabilities in the treaty [signed in November], there is a possibility that other member states could be involved," the official said.
One example she gave was maritime mine countermeasures, which the EDA is looking into. The official added that the subject[of the Franco-British Treaty] "would not be on the agenda of the next EDA steering board meeting of national defense ministries unless France and the U.K. want it to be".
The official said she expected the pooling and sharing of EU member state defense capabilities would be "a key part of discussions" at an informal meeting of EU defense ministers later this week. Two other agency priorities are to communicate better what it does and to develop civil-military synergies.
In connection with civil-military synergies, the official described the EDA as the "ideal place to feed dialogue between member states vis à vis policies managed by the European Commission." She pointed to maritime security, research and technology, and radio frequencies as areas where dialogue with the commission "needs to be developed."
Asked if the EDA had any priorities among the 80 or more projects it is looking into, the official said is "up to the member states to give priorities based on their sovereign interests."
However, later she said that unmanned aerial systems (UASs) are a priority and talks here are taking place with the commission.
"Commission colleagues need to be convinced that they can respond to defense and civilian needs," she said. The EDA is looking into how to integrate UASs into civilian airspace.
The official also referred to a German-Swedish "food-for-thought" paper, which suggests areas, such as strategic and tactical airlift and logistics capabilities, that could be pooled.
"If a country were to accept that a capability would be built by another country or other countries, it would need the quasi-certainty that the capability would be available when they needed to use it," she said.
"In some areas of capabilities in the treaty [signed in November], there is a possibility that other member states could be involved," the official said.
One example she gave was maritime mine countermeasures, which the EDA is looking into. The official added that the subject[of the Franco-British Treaty] "would not be on the agenda of the next EDA steering board meeting of national defense ministries unless France and the U.K. want it to be".
The official said she expected the pooling and sharing of EU member state defense capabilities would be "a key part of discussions" at an informal meeting of EU defense ministers later this week. Two other agency priorities are to communicate better what it does and to develop civil-military synergies.
In connection with civil-military synergies, the official described the EDA as the "ideal place to feed dialogue between member states vis à vis policies managed by the European Commission." She pointed to maritime security, research and technology, and radio frequencies as areas where dialogue with the commission "needs to be developed."
Asked if the EDA had any priorities among the 80 or more projects it is looking into, the official said is "up to the member states to give priorities based on their sovereign interests."
However, later she said that unmanned aerial systems (UASs) are a priority and talks here are taking place with the commission.
"Commission colleagues need to be convinced that they can respond to defense and civilian needs," she said. The EDA is looking into how to integrate UASs into civilian airspace.
The official also referred to a German-Swedish "food-for-thought" paper, which suggests areas, such as strategic and tactical airlift and logistics capabilities, that could be pooled.
"If a country were to accept that a capability would be built by another country or other countries, it would need the quasi-certainty that the capability would be available when they needed to use it," she said.
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