The European Defence Agency was established under a Joint Action of the Council of Ministers on 12 July, 2004, “to support the Member States and the Council in their effort to improve European defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the European Security and Defence Policy as it stands now and develops in the future”. On 12 July 2011, the Council adopted a Decision defining the statute, seat and operational rules of the European Defence Agency. This Council decision replaced the Council Joint Action.
As C-IED is an overarching issue for EU Member States’ Armed Forces operating abroad and civilian actors dealing with security aspects at the European level and in the European Union Member States, close cooperation and coordination with these partners is being pursued by EDA.
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Bison Counter exercises
Bison Counter is a periodically organised multinational live exercise bringing together Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) teams and capabilities from European countries as well as the US. The exercise’s objectives are to exchange and train technical skills, to integrate and use available technical enablers at a tactical level and to implement the full C-IED operational cycle with a view to improving interoperability and resilience among European and Allied C-IED capabilities in their fight against a constantly evolving IED threat, both in military and counter-terrorism operations. Bison Counter is today the largest and most relevant EU exercise of the C-IED community. The aim is to develop common processes, techniques, procedures and interoperability requirements. Lessons learned from previous Bison Counter editions will also be raised and included in the operational part. In the same vein, the exercise will also serve as an experimentation and testing ground for new IED related assets, equipment and technologies.
https://eda.europa.eu/what-we-do/all-activities/activities-search/bison-counter-exercises