Military Erasmus: first assessment, step by step…

(B2)The establishment of a Erasmus military - for the European training of officers - is progressing slowly. The Ministers of Defense of the European Union, meeting this May 18 in Brussels, should approve a few elements. Five practical measures have thus been approved:

1° A common ESDP training module : a pilot seminar for trainers should take place in Brussels at the beginning of June (over two days) and several modules will be organized in the Member States, in particular a one-week pilot project in Portugal. In addition, a distance learning system (via the Internet) is being set up.

2° The European Military Student's Guide. To complete the work started under the French presidency, an inventory work has been started - with the support of the University of Liège (Belgium) - to have an in-depth knowledge of national military education systems (including exchange systems between academies) and training. This information will then be posted on a protected website (http://emilyo.eu).

3° A military facebook? An internet exchange platform will be installed, as well as a discussion forum, allowing young officers to exchange information on their experiences, their training and general topics. This work is being carried out by the Bulgarian Defense Academy (NB: this type of forum, if it really allows discussion, could no doubt do a lot for the ESDP, provided that it is not immediately "padlocked").

4° A legal framework for the exchange of officers. A working group of six people, legal experts, was just set up in March 2009 to work on this framework – which will resemble its civilian elder, Erasmus. A first version is presented in mid-May. The final version is scheduled for the summer.

5° Other training modules. On the initiative of France, with the participation of 14 Member States, another working group has begun to identify certain topics likely to be the subject of training: humanitarian law and the legal framework for crisis management operations, command in a multinational context, communication (media). France, Austria and Germany each took the lead in one of the three modules. And the final result is expected by the end of 2009.

Note that other developments have been decided: a system of equivalences for initial training, a student exchange program...

Download the report (in English).

The keys steps agreed include: the development and conduct of common ESDP training modules; a train-the-trainer seminar in Brussels with a one-week ESDP module as a pilot project in Portugal,
the establishment of an information platform including a discussion forum for young officers; and the development of a legal framework document for the exchange of officers. In parallel, and with the support of the University of Liège, work has started on a detailed stocktake with the aim of creating a platform of in-depth information on the different national military educational systems, including the situation regarding existing exchanges between military academies.