24 II. A defence that mirrors the country Luxembourg’s army has always been the key component in the defence of the Grand Duchy – the instrument of choice for meeting our national and international commitments. Within the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Defence Directorate assists the Minister of Defence in defining defence policy and ensures that it is implemented, including by the armed forces. With the evolution of the defence effort and the national and international context, the activities of the Luxembourg Defence have, for several years now, extended beyond merely investing in specific equipment for the army. In particular, Luxembourg participates in multilateral acquisition programmes for common capabilities which enable contributions to the priority requirements of the EU and NATO, and which can either serve Luxembourg’s army directly with a view to deployment and operation by the latter on behalf of the Grand Duchy, or constitute a Luxembourg contribution to EU, NATO or UN operations involving missions in which our armed forces do not participate directly. The increase in budgetary resources allocated for defence, announced at the NATO Summit held in Wales in September 2014, has been essentially manifested in significant investment in multinational capabilities. The continuing augmentation of the defence effort will require a significant level of investment to be sustained. This investment effort has revealed structural challenges, particularly in terms of human resources and of a degree of volatility at the planning level. As things now stand, the structures of the defence organization and of the Luxembourg army are managing only with difficulty to absorb this considerable budgetary growth. In future, in addition to an investment effort exceeding 20% of the defence budget, the aim will be to establish new, sustainable defence structures and to develop new sectors within Luxembourg’s armed forces together with the appropriate infrastructure. The goal is to ensure that, in future, the Luxembourg Defence apparatus can be founded on broader structures. In keeping with a rapidly diversifying society and economy characterized by an influx of foreign talent and technological innovation,