Time to have a large scale European defence industrial programme

Article by Antonello Pezzini, Delegate of the EESC Consultative Commission on Industrial Change

Last January, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton reiterated the need to consolidate an internal defence market to ensure our security. ‘We started with munitions for Ukraine’, he stated. ‘We now need to broaden this approach to include a large-scale European defence industrial programme capable of supporting the expansion of the European industrial base and developing the infrastructure needed to protect contested areas’.

The European Economic and Social Committee has had the opportunity to reiterate, on numerous occasions, the need to support the launch of a European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) aimed at creating an interoperable and integrated common defence system.

This objective is all the more urgent given the current geopolitical situation, which urges us to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in defence and develop a solid common industrial and technological base.

At the same time, as representative of civil society, the European Economic and Social Committee is tasked with contributing towards developing a European culture of defence and security in order to give full meaning to European citizenship in terms of cohesion, solidarity and sharing.

In order to achieve defence objectives, the Lisbon Treaty calls on the Member States to ‘take concrete measures to enhance the availability, interoperability, flexibility and deployability of their forces, in particular by identifying common objectives ... including possibly reviewing their national decision-making procedures’.

From a strategic perspective, if Europe is required to ensure adequate levels of security for its citizens and businesses, safeguard the territorial integrity of its borders and take on responsibility in the world, it must secure credible defence capabilities, ensuring an appropriate level of strategic autonomy and technological and industrial development, with a common European base. As the wise Latin saying goes, ‘si vis pacem, para bellum’ – if you want peace, prepare for war.

According to the latest European Defence Agency (EDA) report, in 2020, defence spending by the EDA’s 26 Member States (all EU countries except Denmark) amounted to EUR 198 billion, the equivalent of 1.5 % of gross domestic product.

Developing a strong and technologically advanced defence industry is crucial for Europe to be able to achieve sufficient strategic autonomy. The ability to produce state-of-the-art weapons systems not only increases the efficiency of the armed forces, but also strengthens Europe’s technological and economic bases in the current context of growing geopolitical competition.

The necessary process of overcoming a nationalistic view of defence – which is in contrast, inter alia, with the existence of strong politico-military groupings in the world and which has highlighted the fragility and political weakness of Europe in major world events – could opportunely build on the initiative of the Parliament and the Council. Through the action of the Commission, this initiative can influence the industry and the defence market and thus the development of military capabilities.

Between 2018 and 2022, the five largest exporters in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain) produced around one quarter of the total weapons exports worldwide. Thanks to the Commission’s impetus, the European defence market has also started an integration process by merging large industrial groups, which has fostered market integration.

The defence industrial sector is, unfortunately, overwhelmingly dependent on the public demands of individual states and on their national budgets.

Europe is required, however, to ensure adequate levels of security for its citizens and businesses, safeguard the territorial integrity of its borders and take on responsibility in the world. It must therefore ensure common and credible defence capabilities, ensuring an appropriate level of strategic autonomy and technological and industrial development, with a common European base.

As early as June 2017, the European Council agreed on ‘the need to launch an inclusive and ambitious permanent structured cooperation (PESCO)’, with a common list of criteria and binding commitments.

For its part, the European Parliament has repeatedly called for enhanced cooperation on defence between the EU Member States, as well as the full implementation of the Lisbon Treaty as regards security and defence.

The EESC has repeatedly supported the launch of an EDIDP, calling for a regulation to be adopted as a first step, together with other parallel initiatives, aimed at creating an interoperable and integrated common defence system.

The current geopolitical situation quite clearly requires a permanent structural cooperation, already provided for in the Lisbon Treaty, able to establish a list of criteria and binding commitments aimed at overcoming fragmentation of supply and demand and at gradually creating a transparent and open European defence market.

The EDIDP should be framed by a common strategic vision for the defence industry that can move towards the effective integration of European manufacturers and users, involving at least three Member States.

There is an emerging and growing need for structured dialogue at European level, in synergy and coordination with NATO, and a council of defence ministers that can provide ongoing political leadership and a forum for consultation and the adoption of genuinely European decisions.

The statutory provisions must ensure: a balance between large and small countries; that 20 % of participating businesses are smaller businesses; training for skilled staff and new job profiles; and retraining for staff whose skills have become redundant or obsolete.

Now is the time to expand and strengthen this approach to include a large-scale European defence industrial programme, capable of supporting the expansion of the European industrial base, by developing ‘dual-use’ items. These are items, including software and technology, which can be used for both civil and military purposes and include items that can be used for the design, development, production or use of chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery.