Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much the UK contributed to the European Defence Agency (EDA) during 2014-15; and what the benefit is to the armed forces of membership of the EDA which they do not receive from NATO membership.
Mr Julian Brazier
The UK contribution to the European Defence Agency (EDA) budget for Financial Year 2014-2015 was £3.319 million. The UK has held the budget at zero nominal growth since 2010.
A recent review by Cranfield University of the UK’s EDA membership found it enables the UK to influence coherent capability development across Member States; 22 of which are also in NATO. Specific benefits include membership of the EDA Military Airworthiness Authorisation Forum, the Helicopter Training Programmes, and the Single European Sky initiative, which support interoperability through harmonisation of military airworthiness regulations across Member States, and de-risk future combined operations.
The Review also identified benefits to UK Defence industry: the ability to influence European Defence industry initiatives, enabling UK Defence industry access to EDA programmes and the building of confidence of cross border procurement, all of which help contribute to reducing the cost of Defence capability and thus the delivery of the most effective capabilities to UK Armed Forces.
