Mr. Olli Ruutu:

There is a growing realisation in the security environment we are in that more collaborate approaches are needed at European level to support member states' capabilities and to harness the tools we have available at European Union level. The agency was established in 2004 and we have supported member states since then. Our budget for this year was €37.5 million. Last week, we adopted the budget for 2022, at €38 million, which is accounted for by an indexation correction to keep us at that level. Of course, this is in the physical environment in which we have operated and, in light of Covid and the financial constraints our member states have faced, this is a conservative budget. Especially in the areas of innovation and supporting projects and programmes in defence capability co-operation, we see a need for a moderate increase in the years to come. The investment we are making in the collaborative part of defence capability development remains very modest.

In 2017, the agency was given three specific tasks and its role was defined further in the context of these three tasks. The first was prioritisation, which relates to examining, as I mentioned earlier, what Europe will need in the years to come, based, importantly, on member states' requirements in regard to the full spectrum of defence tasks that member states will need to complete, and also to meet the EU level of ambition. The question is what kind of capabilities we need to be a credible security provider in the years to come. It is important that we agree, based on member states' priorities and in co-operation with member states, what we need to focus our efforts on in order that they will have the broadest benefit.

These priorities are based on a capability development plan, an overarching strategic research agenda and industrial capacities and skills that are required. We need to have a long-term approach of co-operation and to build on these priorities. These priorities, which member states agreed to in the EDA framework, are also referred to in, for example, the regulation of the European Defence Fund. They will cover all EU defence-related activities as a guiding priority for the future. We are still on the prioritisation path. We are still developing and reinforcing our work on foresight in respect of both capability requirements and technology in order that Europe will be well prepared to analyse what is needed for the years and even decades to come.

The second task that was given in 2017 by defence ministers was to be the central forum for supporting defence projects, that is, projects undertaken together that can support member states' capability and development. We have run more than €1 billion worth of research and technology programmes in the agency's time. Currently, we are running between 100 and 120 ad hoccapabilities and activities. In many cases, these activities we are running, such as in research and technology, are activities where a number of member states, perhaps four, five or ten, make a moderate initial sum of investment but the most important thing is to examine what requirements we have and where we can find commonality. In that way, by harmonising our requirements, we can also create the basis for future operability, feasibility studies and many things that will go down stream and become capability development activities. We support projects also in the fiscal framework and try to rationalise and reinforce the effective use of funds.

The third area of co-operation and mandate we received relates to interfacing with wider EU policies. We are discussing cyber today, which is a good example of that, but it means that when we develop our defence capabilities and EU policies, we take into account what the defence and security policy requirements are in regard to making that policy. It is quite important now that we are able to have some EU funding through this multi-annual financial framework for defence-related research and capability development, but there are a number of issues relating to space or the environment where, in defence, we share responsibilities relating to sustainability and where we need collaborative approaches to ensure we are capable and credible and, at the same time, we fully carry the responsibility on environmental issues.

These are the three elements on which we are working. For example, in maritime security and many other areas of EU activity, how can defence support the joint efforts and how can policy development take into account defence requirements?

As to where the EDA has been focusing in recent years, we hope to see moderate growth in the collaborative approach, the more effective use of EU funds and the sum of EU member states' activities changing from individual ad hocones into something that in ten, 15 or 20 years' time and beyond support a credible and constructive approach to capability development.

On the question of where we see the EDA going, we have in recent years created an architecture of EU defence initiatives. Through the co-ordinated annual review on defence, we have commitments for more co-operation with the Permanent Structured Cooperation, PESCO. We have a European defence fund that, in co-operation with the Commission, awards through competitions concrete funding to SMEs and large and small industries and incentivises co-operative approaches. In that sense, we are on a good path. The important element is to ensure that we focus on priorities that are sustainable in the long term and we actively review and pursue the most cost-effective use of funds.