THE EUROPEAN – SECURITY AND DEFENCE UNION
The role of EDA in shaping European defence The Agency is the European hub for collaborative capability development
Interview with Jiří Šedivý, CEO of the European Defence Agency, Brussels
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Jiří Šedivý: EDA has become a key player in the new EU defence framework created since the publication of the revised EU Global Strategy in 2016. In concrete terms, this means that we play a role in each of the new instruments for European Defence. Firstly, we are the architect of the Capability Development Plan (CDP) which is periodically reviewed to list the European defence capability development priorities (currently 11), approved by Member States. Secondly, we are the driving force and penholder for the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), collecting data and information from Member States on their national defence development and spending plans in order to make a realistic
he European: Mr Šedivý, you have been the Chief Executive Officer of the European Defence Agency (EDA) since May 2020 and started your mission in the midst of the corona pandemic. How have you managed to exercise your leadership in this situation? Jiří Šedivý: It is true that the general conditions in which I took over as EDA Chief Executive in spring 2020 were – and still are – very difficult due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, my prime objective has been to ensure business continuity and to keep on course the good work that has been done in recent years to enhance defence cooperation in Europe. However disruptive this pandemic is, the need will not go away for our Member States to improve Europe’s defence capabilities, and to do so through cooperation. This crisis, and more generally the emergence of comJiří Šedivý pletely new types of hybrid threats, make this need has been the Chief Executive Officer of the EDA since May 2020. He earned all the more urgent. Therefore, we need to stay on his PhD in Political Science at Prague’s Charles University and his MA in War course and continue the implementation of the new Studies at King’s College London. From 1998 to 2004, he was the Director EU defence tools that have been created since 2016 of the Institute of International Relations in Prague, and the external advisor to boost the development of collaborative defence of President Václav Havel. Mr Šedivý became Defence Minister in 2006 and capability in Europe. Deputy Minister for European Affairs in 2007. He served as NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy (2007-2010) and was Czech’s Perma-
The European: May we have a brief review of what the EDA has achieved up to 2020, relative to the Union’s level of ambition set out in 2016?
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nent Representative to NATO (2012-2019). From 2016 to 2018, he was the President of the Berlin Security Conference (BSC).
