The Czech Republic in the European Defence Agency: the question of effectiveness

At a general level, the article focuses on the relation between states and international organizations. In current era, states and international organizations coexist in international system. Their relation has been researched many times, but the question which is still rather unanswered relates to the management of membership of states in international organizations. The states nowadays participate in hundreds of different organizations. The tricky part that remains to be examined more in details is how to analyse the effectiveness of the engagement of a country in a concrete international organization. The article investigates further the case of the Czech Republic and it analyses its performance and relevance in the European Defence Agency (EDA) applying the research design which was proposed in 20122. The team of researchers proposed four criteria: objective pursued, personal representation, cost/performance ratio and activities implemented. The analysis is based on the examination of the Czech policy goals and priorities in the EDA. It also explor es the area in more details conducting semi-structured interviews with the representatives of different Czech state bodies and employees of the Agency.

Autonomização da Defesa Europeia por Via da Diferenciação: Cooperação Estruturada Permanente

The Lisbon Treaty provided for the establishment of Permanent Structured Cooperation (CEP). In 2017, a group of 25 Member States decided join the CEP jointly in order to facilitate defence cooperation. To this end, the participating E-M have collaborated in several defence projects and sectors with the gradual goal of building common defence. The AR / VP is the figure who coordinates a fully orchestra, in tune with the European Defence Agency and the European External Action Service, so that CEP projects have a good progress. It will be demonstrated that the CARD, the CDP and the EDF are essential for CEP to provide the necessary assets for the real impact on the Union’s defence capabilities. Portugal proved to be careful, but assertive in this process and can provide an important contribution in the industrial and research fields.

INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL MECHANISM OF THE EU IN THE SPHERE OF SECURITY AND DEFENCE

The article examines the features of the institutional and legal mechanism of the Union in the field of security and defence from its founding under the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 to the current stage under the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. The legal characteristics of the EU institutions, that deals with the defence and security of Member States is provided. In particular, the activities of the European Council, the Council of the EU, the European Parliament, as well as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy were analyzed. It is established that the institutional component of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy is characterized by the preservation of the sovereign powers of the Member States, as the development and decision-making at the highest level takes place through intergovernmental bodies of the Union. The powers of subsidiary bodies established by decisions of the EU Council are studied. The activities of the Political and Security Committee, the EU Military Committee, the EU Military Staff, the European Defence Agency, and the Committee on Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management are analyzed. In particular, the Political and Security Committee is the central executive body of the Union and a kind of "engine" of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Especially important is his work on crisis management and finding the most optimal solutions in this direction. The EU Military Committee is the highest military body of the European Union, which manages all military activities within the EU. The EU Staff is the Union's main military expert body, tasked with early warning, situation assessment and strategic planning in line with the European Security Strategy. The European Defence Agency is a center of cooperation in the field of defence policy between Member States, EU institutions and third countries. It is noted that the EU institutional mechanism in the field of security and defence is represented not only by purely military but also by civilian structures, among which the Committee on Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management is the key. It has been found that the above institutions have sole executive powers and are not empowered to make legally binding decisions for Member States. It is concluded that one of the trends in the development of the EU institutional mechanism in the XXI century is so-called military-civil synergy, which occurs through cooperation between military and civilian structures of the Union, whose activities are aimed at achieving systematic goals in security and defence issues.

Smart Acclimatization Textile Systems for Defence

The development of active and/or passive systems for acclimatization of soldiers’ uniforms is seen as an important tool to guarantee soldiers’ comfort and, consequently, to improve their performance during military missions. Accordingly, this work aimed at the development of an innovative acclimatization textile system, comprising both active and passive technologies that can act as temperature regulators in response to environmental conditions and soldiers’ body needs. This study presents the main results achieved on the performance assessment of the developed textile system, with emphasis on comfort assessment determined through characterization of the selected materials in terms of physical properties and functionalities in laboratory conditions, characterization of biophysical parameters of the clothing ensemble in a climatic chamber and preliminary field tests in non-controlled environments. This paper summarizes a part of the activities and results of EDA (European Defence Agency)’s ACCLITEXSYS project.