Today the European Defence Agency’s Deputy Chief Executive, Adam Sowa, and Cassidian’s Sales Director Services, Heinz Unterreiner, met at the EDA to sign a 100.000 Euro training services contract.
The contract covers instructors services and expertise in the area of Counter-IED, one of the top-ten priorities of the Capability Development Plan. This is for the upcoming European Guardian international exercise, taking place in Austria, which will train experts from European nations in manual neutralisation of improvised explosive devices – the most challenging aspect of bomb disposal.
The training has been made possible through a Joint Procurement Initiative (JPI) of Luxembourg and Austria, following the newly introduced EDA Effective Procurement Methods (EPM) model, which enables Member States to procure off-the-shelf goods and services together through the EDA in a streamlined and accelerated way.
On the occasion of the signature, Adam Sowa commented “The signature of this contract, constituting the successful delivery of one of our first EPM pilot cases, shows how Pooling & Sharing can be translated into real and tangible results. Two EDA Member States have joined forces to conduct a common exercise in a crucial area and opened it up for experts from all EU nations for free. For me this is effective cooperation at its best.”
This was echoed by Heinz Unterreiner who underlined that a streamlining of processes is in the interest of both governments and industry, and in the interests of Cassidian.
Source/Author: European Defence Agency