The European Security and Defence College (ESDC) is an EU body embedded in the

External Action Service The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defence ministry of the European Union (EU). The EEAS is led by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP), who is also ...

(EEAS) of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

(EU) that provides training and education at EU level in the field of the

Common Security and Defence Policy The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is the European Union's (EU) course of action in the fields of defence and crisis management, and a main component of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The CSDP involves the dep ...

(CSDP), which is part of the EU's

Common Foreign and Security Policy The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is the organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union (EU) for mainly security and defence diplomacy and actions. CFSP deals only with a specific part of the EU's external relations, whic ...

(CFSP). The ESDC has limited legal capacity.

Mission

In line with th
Council Decision (CFSP) 2016/2382 of 21 December 2016 establishing a European Security and Defence College (ESDC) and repealing Decision 2013/189/CFSP
the ESDC shall provide training and education in the field of the Union's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) in the wider context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) at European level in order to develop and promote a common understanding of CSDP and CFSP among civilian and military personnel, and to identify and disseminate best practice in relation to various CSDP and CFSP issues through its training and education activities (‘ESDC training and education activities’).

History

Under the auspices of the Greek Presidency in 2002 and at the initiative of France and Germany, the concept of 'common training' was introduced. The idea behind this was to develop a European security culture by providing equipped personnel both in the EU Member States and within the EU institutions. The ESDP was created in 2005 by decision of the

Council of the EU The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...

.Decision of the Council of the EU 2005
/ref> In 2008 the

Military Erasmus The Military Erasmus Programme, formally the European initiative for the exchange of young officers inspired by Erasmus, is an initiative undertaken by the European Union (EU) member states aimed at developing the exchanges between armed forces of ...

programme was introduced.

Organisation

The ESDC is organised as follows: *Head of the ESDC, responsible for the financial and administrative management of the ESDC; *ESDC Secretariat, responsible for supporting the Head of the ESDC in fulfilling his tasks. *Steering Committee, responsible for ESDC training activities; *Executive Academic Board, responsible for ensuring the quality and coherence of ESDC training activities via initiatives such as Military Erasmus, eLearning, the task force on CSDP missions and operations training, and the Doctoral School; The college is currently composed of around 160 national training institutes (including national defence academies, police colleges, diplomatic training institutes, the

European Union Institute for Security Studies The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) is a Paris-based agency of the European Union (EU) within the realm of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The EUISS is an autonomous agency with full intellectual freedom and res ...

, the

European Defence Agency The European Defence Agency (EDA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) that promotes and facilitates integration between member states within the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The EDA is headed by the High Representati ...

and other educational and academic institutions). The ESDC develops numerous training activities, mostly with a regional or horizontal focus, ranging from newcomer courses up to strategic leadership level courses such as the CSDP High Level Course. The recent discussions (2017) on CSDP in various Council bodies have put pre-deployment training, in-mission training and other mission-related training on the ESDC agenda.

Military Erasmus

The ESDC's

programme, formally the ''European initiative for the exchange of young officers'', aims to instil a common security and defence culture in young European officers and thereby amplifying interoperability between armed forces. This programme is modelled on its civilian counterpart,

Erasmus+ Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' was a ...

References

Council Decision (CFSP) 2016/2382 of 21 December 2016 establishing a European Security and Defence College (ESDC) and repealing Decision 2013/189/CFSP

External links

ESDC website

Booklet on ESDC 2018

Handbook on CSDP 2017
{{Common Security and Defence Policy