Closer cooperation in defence and security is necessary between EU member states given the challenges they face and this cooperation is an opportunity for the industry sector and economic development, European Defence Agency chief executive Jorge Domecq has said ahead of visiting Zagreb.

The benefits of participating in EDA activities are evident both for your government and your industry, Domecq has told Hina.

We are faced with challenges and risks which no country can tackle alone, such as hybrid threats, challenges tied to artificial intelligence application, or climate change. We must face these challenges through cooperation if we want interoperability, he said.

On the other hand, he added, that is very important for small and medium-sized enterprises which can participate in the implementation of projects funded from the European budget.

We are currently working on seven projects to align the military infrastructure in Europe with energy directives. One of them is building energy-efficient buildings with minimum energy consumption. These projects can be funded from the EU budget and this is a big opportunity both for armed forces and for defence in Europe, but also for companies which can implement them, Domecq said.

The cooperative nature of many projects we support in the EDA opens a supply chain in Europe also for your industry. This is one of the messages I will try to convey in Croatia. One of our missions is supporting the defence industry, he added.

On Monday, Domecq will meet with Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mirko Sundov, and Croatian Chamber of Commerce president Luka Burilovic, among others.

Domecq said his visit to Zagreb had four goals.

The first is to learn about the priorities of Croatia’s Council of the EU presidency in the first half of next year from the perspective of the Defence Ministry and about how the EDA can support Croatia in that, he said.

The other aspect is to see what the Croatian authorities expect of the EDA, the third is their feedback on how we can step up Croatia’s participation in the EDA regarding defence cooperation, and the fourth is to see the Croatian authorities’ stand on our agency’s challenges in the months and years ahead, he added.

The EDA acts as a sort of secretariat of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), which is part of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. Croatia is participating in six of PESCO’s 34 projects which pertain to military mobility, cyber security, maritime surveillance, disaster relief and logistics.

Domecq said all PESCO projects were in their initial stage, except perhaps military mobility.

When it comes to PESCO, we concentrate too much on the number of projects and the number of participants in them. That’s good and important, but we mustn’t forget that the projects are there to enable us to meet the obligations undertaken by the member states, 20 obligations whose implementation should gradually lead to planning defence at European level, he said.

We are pursuing common planning, common investing and common action by our forces. That’s what PESCO should lead to, he added.

Domecq said the EDA’s role was to provide services to member states regardless of their size and that it was especially important for small countries.

The EDA is a place where we agree priorities in the research and development of capabilities on which member states will work, he said, adding that the agency was a prioritisation instrument.

It’s second task is to be a support platform for member states in boosting defence cooperation. We have developed programmes worth more than EUR 1 billion and are currently working on more than 70 projects worth more than EUR 200 million, he said, adding that the agency was a research and innovation centre.

Its third function is to be the interface, spokesperson and guarantor of the interests of member states’ defence ministries in wider European policies which impact defence. The agency is a place where member states agree defence requirements in the Single European Sky, which is a civilian programme but impacts our military aircraft and air bases, Domecq said.

The EDA was established 15 years ago and its 2018 budget was EUR 32.5 million, while this year’s should be two million bigger. It has a staff of 170-180.