High Level EU Conference: The European Defence Fund

Date:
02 October 2018
Location:
Vienna
Organised by:
Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2018, European Commission & the European Defence Agency

Confronted with numerous new challenges, European defence is at a turning point. The European Commission (EC) has therefor launched a number of new initiatives to boost and strengthen European security and defence. The European Defence Fund (EDF), the core element of these initiatives, is entering a decisive phase during the Austrian EU Presidency in the 2nd half of 2018. Therefore this event will be dedicated to a discussion of the Commission’s proposal for a regulation, offering a timely opportunity and ideal platform for a comprehensive discourse with policy makers, industry representatives, the research community, and other stakeholders.

 

The Programme

The discourse is structured along a number of keynote speeches and two panels. Representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Defence Agency will discuss the legislative proposal from the political perspective up to the specific aspects of the comprehensive concept of the EDF.

 

The Goal

The conference goal is to present the reasoning behind the European Commission’s ambition to strengthen European defence in general and the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) in specific. The panels will pay attention to the analysis of the potential and opportunities of the EDF’s integrated research and capability development path and thus panelists will identify how this feature can have a positive impact. They will explore strategies enabling stakeholders to benefit from the new fund, but also address eventual challenges.

The conference is designed to contribute to the ongoing discussions and negotiations of a regulation for establishing the European Defence Fund for the period 2021 – 2027 and to raise awareness among all stakeholders.