T E S T I M O N Y
An agency in good shape
FOR A STRONG
EUROPE OF DEFENCE
Jorge Domecq
Outgoing Chief Executive of the European
T Defence Agency (2015-2020)
HE end of a term of office always offers a good
opportunity to take stock and reflect on the results
achieved and also on the way forward. As I leave
office at the end of January in the European Defence
Agency (EDA), which I have had the honour and
privilege of serving as Chief Executive over the last five years, I
would like to summarise my impressions. Although others will be
in charge of assessing the achievements of the Agency during
my mandate, I hope and trust that these particularly intense
years will be later on considered as a turning point for defence
cooperation in the European Union and the EDA.
FIT FOR PURPOSE
I am leaving an Agency that despite its young age (15 years),
has matured and is in good shape to fulfil its purpose. An Agen-cy
that has become an essential actor for the Member States in
their efforts to build a more effective and interoperable European
defence based on cooperation. An Agency that has consolidated
its position as the European centre for multinational capability de-velopment.
Today, it is the platform where Defence Ministries and
Armed Forces can jointly develop the capabilities they need. In
2019, the Agency managed 113 capability and technological re-search
programmes and projects, and over 200 activities related
to capability development, technological research and defence
industry.
However, that is not all. The EDA has also established itself
as the main architect of the defence capability prioritisation sys-tem
that the EU needs. In 2018, Member States agreed within
the Agency on the eleven priorities that should guide capability
development in Europe in the coming years.
On the other hand, the EDA is now regarded as an efficient man-ager
of technological research programmes for European defence.
And, finally, the Agency is the voice of the Defence Ministries and
the communication channel between the military and defence com-munity
and EU policies. In addition to these tasks, the EDA acts in
the Union as the guardian of coherence among the various defence
cooperation tools that have been defined as a result of the EU Glob-al
Strategy. Given its size and budget, I believe that the European
Defence Agency currently assumes a series of impressive tasks and
responsibilities in a flexible and efficient manner.
A NEW STRATEGY, A NEW AMBITION
However, the end result of its work cannot be taken for granted.
As an intergovernmental agency financed and controlled directly
by Member States, the EDA can only be as ambitious, productive
and useful as the interested parties want it to be. The EU Global
Strategy, published in the summer of 2016, was crucial for the
acknowledgement of this factor. In this document, the EU Mem-ber
States and institutions agreed on a new level of ambition for
European defence: to make defence cooperation the norm rather
than the exception and to set strategic autonomy as a long-term
goal. Global Strategy also acknowledged the key role of the EDA
in the joint development of defence capabilities, in turn more in-teroperable,
and asked Member States to make maximum use
of the Agency.
This new boost for a more collaborative European defence
fostered the launching of new defence initiatives in the EU, such
as the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), Perma-nent
Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the European Defence
Fund (EDF). The common goal of all of the above is to promote
defence cooperation through joint planning, prioritisation, develop-ment,
procurement and the use of military capabilities.
KEY TOOL FOR EU DEFENCE
During all this time, the EDA has made essential contributions to the
development of EU defence cooperation tools, and today plays a
central role in their implementation and enforcement. It acts as the
secretariat of the CARD and PESCO (along with the EU External
Action Service – EEAS - and the EU Military Staff), and as the central
50 Revista Española de Defensa April 2020