Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2018
99. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the projects announced on 19 November 2018 (details supplied) in the PESCO framework he plans to participate in; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49025/18]
View answerOn 2 May 2018, the European Defence Agency, through the PESCO Secretariat, invited participating Member States to submit their project proposals for the second list of PESCO Projects. The proposals once submitted were then evaluated and assessed from both the capability and the operational perspective with the second wave of seventeen (17) PESCO Projects adopted on 19 November 2018 at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. The updated projects list referred to also contains the seventeen (17) first round PESCO Projects as adopted on 6 March 2018.
In relation to the second round of PESCO projects agreed this week at the Foreign Affairs Council with Defence Ministers, while not committing to participating in any further projects, we confirmed our interest in being an Observer on two projects: the French led “EU Radio Navigation Solutions (EURAS) Project” and the Italian led “Counter Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) Project”. Observer Status allows PESCO participating Member States to keep abreast of developments in a particular area.
Ireland is currently participating in two projects from the first round of PESCO projects as adopted in March 2018. One relates to the ongoing development of Defence Forces capabilities for peace support and crisis management operations; The German led "Centre of Excellence for EU Military Training Missions (EUTMCC) Project" and the second project is a Greek led "Upgrade of Maritime Surveillance Systems". We also maintain observer status on eight further projects from the first tranche.
