Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 98: To ask the Minister for Defence his views on the meeting in Brussels of the European Defence Agency on 21 November 2005; the voluntary code of conduct for defence procurement agreed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38201/05]

Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Defence attended a meeting of the European Defence Agency Steering Board on 21 November 2005. The steering board is the principal decision-making body of the agency on which the 24 participating member states are represented — Denmark does not participate under its general opt-out on decisions with defence or military implications. The overall aim of the agency is to support member states in their efforts to improve European defence capabilities in support of European Security and Defence Policy.

The meeting began with the presentation of a report by the head of the EDA, Secretary General-High Representative Solana, outlining progress made on the agency's work programme during 2005. Agreement was reached on a work programme for the EDA for 2006, a budget for the EDA for 2006, and on an intergovernmental regime — a voluntary code of conduct — to encourage competition in the European defence equipment market. The voluntary code of conduct will seek to eliminate or reduce the use of Article 296 and the use of offsets and other market distortion instruments. It is intended to introduce the regime for subscribing member states by 1 July 2006. Not all states need join from the outset, or at all. While Ireland is not a major consumer of defence equipment in relative terms, developments which improve market efficiencies or which may yield some economies of scale for equipment procurement for the Defence Forces should be encouraged and would obviously be beneficial in terms of driving prices down. It is hoped that the effect of the code of conduct would be to deliver more efficiency in terms of our investment in defensive equipment for the Defence Forces.

The development of a long-term vision, LTV, was discussed which will provide a reference point to assist and guide future decisions on research and strategic decisions in relation to capabilities development. It will be important that the LTV is commensurate with the stated ambition of the EU as set out in the headline goal 2010 and the European security strategy.

A short discussion took place on proposals to identify participating member states' requirements and to test the viability of a collective European approach to developing a next-generation software defined radio as a joint civil-military endeavour. This issue is very much at the embryonic stage.

A proposal was discussed that will see work begin in 2006 on devising a set of indicators and targets in relation to defence expenditure across Europe on the clear understanding that decisions on the level and focus of defence expenditure continues to be, and will remain, a matter for national Governments.