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EDA develops plan for centralised R&T fund
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| 10 March 2006 |
By James Murphy
EU defence ministers have called on the European Defence Agency (EDA) to draw up detailed proposals of how a centralised research and technology (R&T) fund might work in practice.
Meeting at the EDA Steering Board (which consists of 24 EU defence ministers but excludes Denmark as Copenhagen does not participate in EU decision making that has defence implications) in Innsbruck, Austria, on 6-7 February, the ministers looked at establishing a special EDA programme of joint R&T investment, with an associated budget provided by a coalition of contributors.
Javier Solana, chairman of the EDA and EU High Commissioner for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, insisted the meeting "was not a day for decisions", but merely a forum for ideas to be discussed and developed.
Ministers asked for detailed proposals on this option to be prepared before their next meeting in May, ahead of the next summit of EU leaders in June.
Solana welcomed the ministers' response. He said: "Everybody accepts that Europe has to raise its game on defence as a whole and on pursuing the new technologies which will give us the capabilities we need in the future and strengthen our industries and research institutions".
He argued that the discussions had "helped to establish a framework for identifying the most important objectives and the right funding mechanisms" to ensure that the EU spent more on defence R&T, with more emphasis on co-operation and efficiency.
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