Defence ministers to debate research fund and Congo-force

Should the EU start pooling its scarce funding for defence research? EU Defence Ministers will debate the issue at an informal council in Austria. 

Defence ministers from France and Britain are on the road to disagreement over whether the EU should create a defence research fund, at a meeting in Innsbruck on 6-7 March. The idea for the fund is laid out in a proposal from EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in February.

Britain and France together spend 700 million euros annually on defence research. The EU total is of 2 billion euros. While France backs the fund, Britain is reluctant and would prefer to select specific projects for cross-border funding. In comparison, the USA spends five times more on defence research than all the EU states together.

Defence ministers meet will also debate plans for sending European troops to help safeguard elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo in June, when the country holds the first free elections since independence from Belgium in 1961. 

The UN has asked the EU for around 800 troops. France, Germany, Sweden, Ireland and Belgium are willing to support the mission, but no country is eager to take the lead in the operation. 

Read more with Euractiv

Follow-up survey of European research infrastructures underway

A survey of European research infrastructures is set to consider the uniqueness of these structures in various disciplines, their openness of access and their financial importance.