EDA hopes for more UK involvement

The European Defence Agency (EDA) wants to see Britain more involved in the agency’s activities, said Alexander Weis, who became the EDA’s second chief executive in October.

Weis called Britain’s decision not to join the EDA-led force-protection effort last year “a pity.”

“It is a very important country in the EU, and we would like to see the U.K. much more involved in the EDA’s activities,” he said.

A U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD) spokesperson said, “The U.K. did not take part in the force protection project because we saw it as duplicating work we were already doing."

“We take part in about a third of current project groups and are an active and constructive member of the EDA,” the spokesperson said. “But we have always made very clear that the EDA needs to justify any increases in either personnel or operating budget on the basis of a business case.”

Jean-Rene Le Goff, armaments counselor in the office of France’s permanent representative to the EU here, said, “The U.K.’s participation is needed because it is one of the most important players in Europe in defense. Not having the U.K. reduces the EDA’s ambitions. After all, the U.K. is France’s biggest research and technology partner.”

Established in 2004, the EDA is still a fledgling organization that runs on a year-by-year budget — 32 million euros ($47.4 million) for 2008, assuming a 6 million euro UAV research proposal is accepted by the EDA’s 26 member states.

Its members — all EU countries except Denmark — have three times failed to create a long-term financial framework. Weis notes that it was “not due to the U.K. alone that we failed, as it was not accepted by other member states, either.”

In April, an EU committee will hold a brainstorming session on possible ways to secure a three-year budget this autumn. Weis suggested “a rolling three-year financial framework to be agreed every year” with “a budget for the first year and ceilings for years two and three that would be updated every year.”

Le Goff said France sees room for improvement in the agency’s budget and overall role. The one-year budget is something that France can “live with,” but is “less comfortable because it does not give a guarantee of continuity,” he said. “One year is a very short time in terms of defense investment.”

Le Goff said the actual amount of money causing all the talk is just 6 million euros, the amount the EDA proposes to spend on studies, and a relatively small amount of money compared with most countries’ defense budgets. By comparison, he said, the EDA’s 20 million euro operating budget “is not disputed by anyone, including the U.K.”

In Le Goff’s personal view, the problem is one of confidence. There is “a need for intensified U.K.-France discussion over the EDA, and for the EDA to show the good quality of work it is doing,” he said.

But Vasilis Margaras, a researcher on defense issues from the think tank CEPS, said he believes the problem for the EDA is particularly with Britain, which “from the very beginning has not been convinced that it wants an EDA under the EU umbrella.”

“It is not just the budget issue but the U.K.’s tradition and policy perspectives on the EDA and how far it should go,” Margaras said. “The U.K. is very cautious on any armaments issues or empowerment of the EDA. The debate is about whether the European Security and Defense Policy should go mainly in a European or Atlanticist direction. The U.K. interest is in strong links with NATO and the USA. It does not want an EDA that takes Europe on a more independent path.”

Margaras noted that Britain’s relatively large budget and pool of expertise mean “the ball is in the U.K.’s court as to how far it wants to collaborate, but we can expect to see some projects undertaken by smaller groups of countries in the future”.

Source: J. Hale - DefenseNews

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