Defence and Security Research Coexistence, Coherence, and Convergence

Abstract

Defence and security research have coexisted at the European Union level since the inception of the European Defence Agency (EDA). The agency was established under a Joint Action of the Council of Ministers on 12 July 2004, “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”.1 The political decision to create the EDA was taken at the Thessaloniki European Council on 19 and 20 June 2003. Heads of State or Government tasked the Council bodies to undertake the requisite actions, in the course of 2004, to create an intergovernmental agency in the field of defence capabilities development, research, acquisition and armaments. The EDA has been located in Brussels right from the start. It is an intergovernmental EU agency under the Council’s authority within the single institutional framework of the Union. It performs its mission in close cooperation with its participating Member States (pMS) and the European institutional actors.