News and activities

  The Ukraine War has seriously added relevance to questions about effective ways to better arrange defence procurement and the defence industry. This is especially true in the EU where the traditional focus on national industry has led to scattered production and costly manufacturing lines. Join us for a discussion on a draft Eurodefense recommendation to the European Commission on advanced ideas how to plan ahead for a European defence industrial base (EDTIB) that is up to the task of developing and equipping the armed forces of the member states.

Springbok armoured vehicle by DCD Protected Mobility On 16 August 2023, EDTA president Jan Wind  was invited to speak about Financial Public Private Partnerships ( FPPPs ) at the  Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) for Security and Defence Conference   organised by Defenceweb in Pretoria (South Africa) . His main message was that innovation could speed up if private funds are used effectively in a Public Private Partnerships for Defence. Similarly, private financing methods could be used for major programmes: manufacturing of capabilities and in-service support. It could be important for the South African Defence to take advantage of these opportunities to strengthen its capabilities. Conclusions 1. Progress in Europe Financial Public Private Partnerships are pursued by the European Union, NATO and several European member states. These seem to be quite complex to develop, but it has advantages to involve the financial sector in national security. Certainly, since ...

  On 15 February 2023 EDTA and the  Eurodefense network sent " Recommendations on Energy, Security and Defence " to the presidents of the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament.  The recommendations are a report of a joint working group (EWG26B) and consist of Geopolitical Considerations, European Energy policies proposals and a technological perspective .  For EDTA the technological perspective is the most relevant part. Continue reading for this part of the executive summary and for recommendations on technology, specific for Defence. Links to the other part of the recommendations can be found at the bottom of this page. General Considerations  The energy transition for defence needs to progress in several areas. Energy sources, energy carriers (i.e. fuels/storage), energy efficiency/savings, and smart energy applications and design. Naturally all of this must be clean and sustainable, or at least better than the ones they replac...

  Seminar on European Defence cooperation organised by Eurodefense and EDTA at the occasion of the Eurodefense Presidents Council, held in the Netherlands for the first time since 2013.  Use this link to register for online participation .  During this seminar views from the Netherlands on future European Defence cooperation will be presented and discussed with an international audience. Presidents and board members of the 15  Eurodefense  member associations will participate as part of their 3 day conference. Speakers: Sander van der Sluis  (Head of European Union Defence Policy at NL MoD) Netherlands Defence policy white paper 2022 Bart Groothuis  (Member European Parliament, Renew Europe) Future of European Defence Maarten Lutje Schipholt  (Netherlands Industries for Defence and Security foundation NIDV) Industry views on European cooperation Ron Keller  (former Netherlands Ambassador to a.o. Ankara, Kiev, Moscow and Beijing...

       Today the EDTA annual report was published. Download the report here .