From Julian Hale, Defense News:  The European Defence Agency’s new chief executive, Claude-France Arnould, will be looking to encourage countries taking part in the agency (all EU countries except for Denmark) to use the EDA to get more value for money in these times of budgetary austerity.

Arnould, who will take up her new post on Jan. 17, will be visiting all the national capitals but is expected to make a special effort to show the agency’s added value to the United Kingdom, which is not involved in many of the EDA’s projects. …

Although Arnould was currently in a listening phase, talking to both EDA officials and ministries of defense, an EU source said that possible priority areas for her included counter IED, space assets and drones. She is also expected to try to persuade France and Britain to include other EDA countries in their joint military capability development plans agreed in November 2010.  (photo: European Union)