Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for Defence his views on the Long Term Vision report from the European Defence Agency presented to the EU Defence Ministers meeting in Levi, Finland on 3 October, 2006; the Irish Government's response to this document; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38115/06]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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An informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers took place in Levi, Finland on 2nd and 3rd October, 2006. In tandem with the informal Defence Ministers' meeting, there was a Ministerial level meeting of the EDA Steering Board.

The main item on the Agenda for the Steering Board was a discussion on the EDA's initial long-term vision, which had been developed by the Agency over the past number of months. The purpose of the LTV is to set out a view of the future global context and, against this background, the potential capability requirements for ESDP operations. Given the lead time involved in the development of defence equipment and capabilities, there is a need to project forward over a 20 to 30 year time horizon so as to provide some guidance to the EDA and capability planners in terms of the broad types of capabilities which ESDP is likely to require in the future.

The overall thrust of the LTV document was generally supported by the Steering Board as providing a broad compass looking into the future of possible capability needs for EU military forces engaged in ESDP operations. That said there are significant caveats on the document which is an a-political, non-binding, non-committing document which has not been agreed in word-by-word detail by the member States.

The long-term vision is a living document to be reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis, probably every 2 to 3 years. It will provide some guidance on the focus of R&T initiatives which may be facilitated by the EDA and will feed into an ESDP Capability Development Plan to be completed by December. Any future R&T Agenda or Capability Development Plans will have to be agreed specifically by the Steering board on a case-by-case basis.