Steering Board Research Articles

The European Defence Agency on Europe's Future in a Globalizing World

For a number of years the European Union has been building a common European security and defense policy. The European Defence Agency (EDA) was established in 2004 “to support the Member States and the Council [of Ministers of the EU] in their effort to improve European defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the European Security and Defence Policy.” A report prepared by EDA under the title An Initial Long‐Term Vision for European Defence Capability and Capacity Needs was submitted to the Agency's Steering Board (the decisionmaking body on which the Defense Ministers of the Agency's 24 participating member states sit) on 3 October 2006. The report was endorsed by the Board “as a reasonable foundation for the EDA's medium‐to‐long‐term agendas.” The 28‐page document addresses its topic with a 20‐year perspective in a global setting. It finds the perspective “sobering, with the central predictions of demography and economics foreshadowing a Europe which, two decades hence, will be older, less pre‐eminently prosperous, and surrounded by regions (including Africa and the Middle East) which may struggle to cope with the consequences of globalisation.” Excerpts from the report are reproduced below. Paragraph numbers have been omitted. The full report is accessible at «http://www.eda.europa.eu/ltv/ltv.htm».

Eurochip: a microelectronics education initiative

In 1988 the Commission of the European Communities initiated, within the Esprit Programme, a VLSI Educational Desing Action. A Steering Board was formed to run this Action and the Eurochip Consortium was put in place to support the design, fabrication and test of integrated circuits and systems. The aim of this action was to support the education of engineers at universities throughout Europe. Currently more than 300 academic universities from all over Europe participate in the Action. The Eurochip Consortium organises the fabrication of the integrated circuits as well as supporting the use of professional CAD software and testers. In addition to education the Action is designed to stimulate cooperation between universities and industry.

EDP Centre and EDP Project Organization

Abstract There are three main types of organization in an EDP Centre and it is up to its Management to decide which one to use, after having carefully studied the conditions, the nature and the size of the problems of the Company. In this paper, the following three types of EDP Centre Organization are examined - application organization - functional organization - matrix organization The functions of the EDP Steering Board, the Project Board and the Project Team (EDP PROJECT ORGANIZATION), are studied as well, largely within the limits of matrix organization. The paper contains 1. Introduction 2. EDP Centre Organization 3. EDP Project Organization 4. Interferences between EDP Centre and EDP Project Organizations 5. Experience with Olympic Airways organizational structures.

Organization for European Economic Cooperation

Council: The Council of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) met on May 5 and 6, 1954, and agreed on the basis of a compromise settlement of the extreme creditor and debtor problem in the European Payments Union (EPU). The settlement provided that 1) accumulated debts should be paid over a period of time; 2) debtors should in the future limit to a minimum their resort to EPU resources; 3) the rules of payment should remain unaltered; 4) if the German Federal Republic or other creditors increased their surpluses in EPU, they should extend further credit, but receive some compensation from the EPU dollar reserve; and 5) the special position of Germany should be dealt with. According to press reports, the settlement had averted the danger that the United Kingdom and Germany would withdraw from EPU. The Council, which also decided that EPU should be renewed for another year after June 30, 1954, referred the matter of further details of the settlement to the managing board of EPU. Other actions taken by the Council during its May meeting included the following: 1) recommendations to France that it abolish the compensatory taxes on imports which it had introduced along with certain measures of trade liberalization, and increase trade liberalization to 75 percent by November 1, 1954, instead of to the 65 percent which it had promised; 2) recommendations to the steering board that it submit, as soon as possible, “concrete proposals” for the abolition of artificial measures designed to aid exporters; and 3) the establishment of a ministerial group to examine the problems which would arise if a “number of countries” re-established convertibility.