New Defence Agenda

New Defence Agenda is a think tank run by Giles Merrit and funded by US and EU-based arms producers. From 1 February 2006 it was renamed Security and Defence Agenda.

According to a Corporate Europe Observatory report on the 2004 European Business summit:

Giles Merrit used the opportunity to give the arms industry some public relations advice on how to overcome the 'merchants of death' image. 'Stop talking about costs, instead highlight the activity and the jobs coming from the sector', said a hoarse-voiced Merrit, who proposed 'the defence economy' as a term that would appeal more to the public. 'Stop making macho ads with missiles and fighter planes' and start using 'civil society language', Merrit proposed, suggesting that the industry could present itself as "protecting civil society and the freedom of citizens"...

Merrit is a Brussels lobbying veteran whose CV includes running the Philip Morris Institute for Public Policy Research in the 1990s, being director of the thinktank Forum Europe and Secretary general of Friends of Europe, as well as establishing the "Fairer World Forum" (in response to the globalisation debate). New Defence Agenda was set up by Forum Europe (which Merrit was the director of), with whom they still share a building (Bibliotheque Solvay, in the parc right next to the European Parliament). At the EBS, NATO's Jamie Shea introduced NDA as "the leading forum in Brussels bringing together NATO, EU and other partners". Merrit in his introduction expressed his worries about whether the UK would reduce defence expenses, as the UK and France are the only EU countries that "have their defence act together".