Lithuania joins European air transport fleet programme (1)

The following news release has been republished here courtesy of the Ministry of National Defence

May 23, Vice Minister of National Defence Vytautas Umbrasas with other 17 members of the European Union signed in Brussels (Belgium) the European Air Transport Fleet (EATF) Programme aimed at enhancing military airlift capabilities of countries taking part in the programme and employing financial resources in a more efficient way.

Participants of the Programme will seek establishing conditions to employ the existing airlift capabilities more efficiently (by means of pooling, collectively rendering logistic support, etc.) by collective procurement of new assets, optimization of a variety of organizational structures, and uniforming rules and procedures.

The European Air Transport Fleet Programme was launched on the initiative of the European Defence Agency (EDA) and it will be the first EDA’s programme Lithuania will join. Lithuania’s participation will not entail any financial obligations. However, in the future Ministry of National Defence foresees assessing Lithuania’s capacity to enter the Programme with a concrete contribution.

Lithuania is already a participant of a similar NATO Strategic Airlift programme complementing an EU initiative according to which 10 NATO members ant two partner countries (Sweden and Finland) jointly purchased three aircrafts C-17 "Boeing Globemaster III".

In the May 23 EU Defence Ministers’ meeting in Brussels draft report on the Common Security and Defence Policy of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton was presented, the document puts forward suggestions regarding implementation of various initiatives in the field. The main attention is focused on further development of the Pooling and Sharing initiative, the EU Battle Groups, and strengthening the NATO-EU cooperation.

In the meeting Defence Ministers discussed a possible EU operation in Libya. They also addressed the ongoing EU military operations in the Cape of Africa region, the main of which is counter-piracy operation ATALANTA and the EU Training Mission (EUTM) preparing personnel for the mission in Somalia. Staff officer of the Lithuanian Naval Force is deployed to the ATALANTA Operation Headquarters Northwood (United Kingdom).

The EU Defence Ministers’ session was traditionally preceded by the Baltic-Nordic Defence Ministers' meeting where they exchanged views on the most important points on the EU defence agenda and Baltic-Nordic cooperation.

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