A European Security and Defence College (ESDC) is hereby established.
Council Decision (CFSP) 2020/1515 of 19 October 2020 establishing a European Security and Defence College, and repealing Decision (CFSP) 2016/2382
Council Decision (CFSP) 2020/1515 of 19 October 2020 establishing a European Security and Defence College, and repealing Decision (CFSP) 2016/2382
CHAPTER I Establishment, mission, objectives and tasks
Article 1 Establishment
Article 2 Mission
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 CFSP and CSDP among civilian and military personnel and to identify and disseminate best practices in relation to various CFSP and CSDP, issues through its training and education activities ('ESDC training and education activities').
Article 3 Objectives
The ESDC shall have the following objectives:
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to further enhance the common European security and defence culture within the Union and to promote the principles laid down in Article 21(1) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) outside the Union;
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to promote a better understanding of CSDP as an essential part of CFSP;
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to provide Union instances with knowledgeable personnel able to work efficiently on all CSDP matters within the wider context of CFSP;
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to provide Member States' administrations and staff with knowledgeable personnel familiar with Union policies, institutions and procedures in the field of CSDP;
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to provide CSDP Missions' and Operations' personnel with a common understanding of CSDP Missions' and Operations' functioning principles and a sense of common European identity;
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to provide training and education responding to training and educational needs of CSDP Missions and Operations;
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to support Union partnerships in the field of CSDP, in particular partnerships with those countries participating in CSDP missions;
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to support civilian crisis management including in the field of conflict prevention, and establishing or preserving the conditions necessary for sustainable development;
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to promote the European Initiative for the Exchange of Young Officers;
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to promote PhD-level research in domains related to CSDP;
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to provide Member States' and Union administrations with knowledgeable personnel familiar with Union policies, institutions, procedures and best practices in the field of cyber security and defence;
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to help promote professional relations and contacts among training and education participants.
Where appropriate, attention shall be paid to ensuring consistency with other activities of the Union.
Article 4 Tasks of the ESDC
1.
The main tasks of the ESDC shall be, in accordance with its mission and objectives, to organise and conduct ESDC training and education activities in the field of the CSDP in the wider context of CFSP.
2.
The ESDC training and education activities shall include:
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basic and advanced level courses promoting generic understanding of CFSP and CSDP;
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courses developing leadership;
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courses directly supporting CSDP Missions and Operations, including pre‐deployment and in-mission/in-operation training and education;
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courses supporting EU partnerships and countries participating in CSDP Missions and Operations;
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modules supporting civilian and military training and education in the field of CSDP;
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CSDP courses, seminars, programmes and conferences for specialised audiences or with specific focus;
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common modules run under the European Initiative for the Exchange of Young Officers, inspired by the Erasmus programme; although formally not ESDC training and education activities, the ESDC will also support and promote European semesters and joint master's degrees making use of the common modules referred to in this point;
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cyber awareness and advanced level courses, including in support of CSDP missions and operations;
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courses and seminars aimed at supporting PhD-level research through exchange of best practices and experience.
Other training and education activities shall be undertaken, as decided by the Steering Committee referred to in Article 9.
3.
In addition to the activities referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article, the ESDC shall, in particular:
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support the relations to be established between the institutes referred to in Article 5(1) engaged in the network referred to in that paragraph ('the network');
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run and further develop an e-Learning system to support CSDP training and education activities or, in exceptional circumstances, be used as stand-alone training and education activities;
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develop and produce training and educational material in the field of CSDP also drawing on already existing relevant material;
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support an Alumni Association between former training participants;
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support exchange programmes in the field of CSDP between the Member States' training and educational institutes;
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act as compartment administrator of the Schoolmaster module of the Goalkeeper project and provide contributions to the annual Union Training Programme in CSDP through this module;
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act as administrator of the Union-instance of the CD-TXP platform for the exchange of cyber related training opportunities;
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provide support to the management of training and education in the field of conflict prevention, civilian crisis management, establishing or preserving the conditions necessary for sustainable development and Security Sector Reform initiatives, as well as promotion of cyber security and hybrid threats' awareness;
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organise and run an annual network conference bringing together civilian and military training and education experts in CFSP and CSDP from Member States' training and educational institutes and ministries, and relevant external training and education actors as appropriate;
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maintain relationships with relevant actors in the field of Freedom Security and Justice, in the field of Development and Cooperation, and with relevant International Organisations;
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support the Committee for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management and the EU Civilian Training Group by administering and managing the travel and accommodation costs relating to the activities of the Civilian Coordinators for Training;
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participate in the meetings of the Union civilian and military training groups, derive civilian/military training requirements from their output and take the results of the requirements analysis into account during the annual prioritisation exercise of ESDC activities and for the development of ESDC curricula; and
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further elaborate, maintain and promote the sectoral qualification framework for military officers.