This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on European Defence Agency is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
The European Defence Agency (EDA) is an agency of the European Union based in Brussels. It is a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) body set up on 12 July 2004, reporting to the Council of the European Union. All EU member states, except Denmark which has an opt-out of the CFSP pillar, take part in the agency.2 Norway, which is not an EU member, has been granted an opt-in to participate in the EDA programmes without voting rights.citation needed
Contents |
Tasks
The Council established the EDA "to support the Member States and the Council in their effort to improve European defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the European Security and Defence Policy as it stands now and develops in the future”. Within that overall mission are four functions3;
- Development of defence capabilities in the field of crisis management.
- Promotion and enhancement of European armaments cooperation.
- Working to strengthen the Defence Technology and Industrial Base and for the creation of an internationally competitive European Defence Equipment Market.
- Enhancement of the effectiveness of European Defence Research and Technology.
Structure
.jpg)
| European Union | ||
 This article is part of the series: |
||
| Leaders | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sub-policies | ||
|
Security and Defence Policy |
||
| Bodies | ||
|
Political and Security Committee |
||
| Military forces | ||
|
|
||
The body has a legal personality and is governed primarily by three elements4.
- Head of the Agency: Responsible for overall organisation and functioning, ensures implementation of guidelines and decisions, chairs ministerial meetings of Steering Board. Currently, Javier Solana (also CFSP High Representative) appointed at the agency's foundation (July 12 2004)
- Steering Board: The agency's decision making body, composed of the defence ministers of participating Member States together with a representative of the European Commission and led by the Head of the Agency3.
- Chief Executive: Head of staff and responsible for supervision and co-ordination of units. Currently Alexander Weis5.
As of 2007, EDA has a staff of around 100.
Budget
The budget and expenditure of the EDA is given in the table below6.
| Year | Budget (€ millions) | Expenditure (€ millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 1.9 | 0.4 |
| 2005 | 21.2 | 20.7 |
| 2006 | 22.3 | 18.8 |
| 2007 | 22.1 | 21.5 |
| 2008 | 32.0 | Data not yet available |
| 2009 | 30.0 | Data not yet available |
Membership and Funding Mechanism
All EU member states are eligible to join the EDA and to leave it. One EU member, Denmark, does not paticipate. The agency is financed by its members in propotion to their Gross National Income. An effect of this is that some nations pay vastly different contributions towards the budgets than others. For example in 20077 the biggest budgetary contributor was Germany at a cost of € 4,202,027 followed by the United Kingdom paying € 3,542,487, and France paying € 3,347,139. However under this Gross National Income formula similary sized Poland was only required to pay € 479,091. Likewise Malta and Luxembourg have approximately the same populations, however using this funding mechansim Luxembourg was required to pay € 47,219 whereas Malta only had to pay € 8,739. Although not an EU member Norway has an opt-in to particpate in EDA activities; it is not required to make a contribution to the funding of the agency for any services the agency may provide it.
History
The European Defence Agency is a continuation of the work of the Western European Armaments Organization (WEAO) and the Western European Armaments Group (WEAG) - it effectively represents the transference of their functions from the WEU to the EU framework, and thus continues the decommissioning of the WEU.
Head of EDA
- Javier Solana, 2004-
Chief executives of EDA
- Nick Witney, 2004-2007
- Alexander Weis, 2007-
See also
- Western European Union (WEU)
- European Union defence procurement
- OCCAR
- European Defence Initiative
- Military of the European Union
External links
- European Defence Agency Official website (eda.europa.eu)
- Council Joint Action 2004/551/CFSP of 12 July 2004 on the establishment of the European Defence Agency Official website (eur-lex.europa.eu)
- European Defence White Paper EU ISS Document
- European Defence UK NGO website
References
- ^ Brussels, 10 November 2008, Press Release
- ^ European Defence Agency europa.eu
- ^ a b Background eda.europa.eu
- ^ European Defence Agency eda.europa.eu
- ^ New Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency Appointed eda.europa.eu 24//05/07
- ^ [1]For data from EDA annual accounts
- ^ EUROPEAN DEFENCE AGENCY 2007 FINANCIAL REPORT June 2008
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 29 December 2008, at 17:22.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "European Defence Agency".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.