{"id":425678,"date":"2025-05-06T10:54:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T08:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/05\/06\/ue-andre-denk-guida-agenzia-difesa-kallas\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T12:22:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T10:22:39","slug":"eu-picks-german-general-andre-denk-to-lead-european-defense-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/05\/06\/eu-picks-german-general-andre-denk-to-lead-european-defense-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"EU picks German General Andr\u00e9 Denk to lead European Defense Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bruxells &#8211; Member states\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/eda.europa.eu\/news-and-events\/news\/2025\/05\/05\/eu-member-states-appoint-andr%C3%A9-denk-as-new-eda-chief-executive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appointed<\/a> <strong>Andr\u00e9 Denk as the new chief executive of the European Defense Agency<\/strong> (EDA) upon\u00a0the recommendation of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,<strong> Kaja Kallas<\/strong>. His appointment, formalized yesterday (May 6), breaks with the tradition of diplomats and politicians leading the agency, putting a military man at its helm for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>With war at our borders <\/strong>and hybrid threats across the Union, the EDA\u2019s work to develop joint military capabilities and boost innovation in the defense sector has never been more important,&#8221; Kallas said. &#8220;Under General Denk&#8217;s leadership, the Agency will play a key role <strong>in ensuring Europe\u2019s readiness for the challenges ahead<\/strong>.&#8221; On the Agency he will now lead, Andr\u00e9 Denk said, &#8220;The European Defense Agency is uniquely positioned<strong> to support Member States<\/strong> across the entire <strong>capability development<\/strong> cycle and beyond. The Agency brings together the expertise, networks, and insight needed to strengthen military cooperation, innovate, and support Europe\u2019s defense industry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Denk previously served as deputy director general of the EDA from February 2023. In this role, he led activities for the joint procurement of 155 mm ammunition to support <strong>Ukraine<\/strong> and replenish member states&#8217; stockpiles. Before joining the agency, he was the logistics director of the <strong>EU Military Staff<\/strong> and previously commander of the Joint School of Logistics\u00a0in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout his military career, he undertook many international <strong>deployments<\/strong> under the\u00a0European Union, United Nations, and NATO mandates &#8211; including in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, and as chief of staff of the EU Training Mission in Mali. Born in Rotthalmunster, Bavaria, in 1967, Denk joined the German armed forces in 1986. In addition to German, he is fluent in English, French, Serbian, and Croatian.<\/p>\n<p>The general will head an agency that has undergone a profound change in recent years, transforming into a procurement center with greater powers in identifying gaps in national armies. In addition to focusing attention on preparing for the <strong>crises<\/strong> that are shaking the current international environment, the choice of a German military man to lead the EDA could improve relations between the Brussels-based organization and the <strong>German government<\/strong>, which has already been skeptical about entrusting the EDA with control of military matters, pushing for <strong>joint purchases<\/strong> of weapons to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/04\/28\/germany-suspends-internal-stability-pact-to-fund-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">managed<\/a> by a designated &#8220;lead nation,&#8221; rather than by the agency.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-o-mail-quote-node=\"1\" data-o-mail-quote=\"1\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I am glad to appoint General Andr\u00e9 Denk as Chief Executive of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EUDefenceAgency?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@EUDefenceAgency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The agency&#8217;s role in developing joint military capabilities and driving innovation is more crucial than ever.<\/p>\n<p>General Denk\u2019s leadership will be a real asset.<br \/>\nI look forward to our work together. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HZsG2GC4LD\">pic.twitter.com\/HZsG2GC4LD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kajakallas\/status\/1919434664793592182?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">May 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time, a military man will hold the post. High Representative Kallas: &#8220;With war on our borders, he will be a valuable resource.&#8221; Denk was the former deputy director of the Defense Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7883,"featured_media":425666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30809],"tags":[27336,26267,30670,26327,31149,31148,30690,25745],"class_list":["post-425678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-security","tag-others-think-and","tag-european-agency-defense-en","tag-rearmament-en","tag-safety-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425717,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425678\/revisions\/425717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}