Brussels, 30/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Elzbieta Bienkowska, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, launched a high-level defence research group on Monday 30 March.
The creation of the group is in line with the conclusions of the European summit of December 2013. The 16 members of the group include Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Carl Bildt, former Swedish prime minster and foreign minister, and Michael Gahler MEP (EPP, Germany), who is a member of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee. The private sector is represented by a number of CEOs such as Ian King (BAE Systems) and Tom Enders (Airbus).
“Securing the long-term future for our defence industry is in all our interests - both nationally and collectively. The Commission can play an important supporting role to reinforce national defence industries and research capacities”, said Bienkowska. Based on the research group's work, the Commission will propose a research programme for defence in early 2016 - a programme that will be implemented between 2017 and 2019. In a press release, the Commission points out that a competitive and efficient European defence and technological industrial base requires more investment in research and innovation. However, over recent years this investment has seen “dramatic reductions in Europe” accompanied by a rapidly deteriorating security context.
The other members of the high-level group are Fernando Abril-Martorell, CEO of Indra; Antoine Bouvier, CEO of MBDA; Hakan Buskhe, CEO of Saab; Paul de Krom, CEO of TNO and former Dutch secretary of state for social and employment affairs; Elisabeth Guigou, member of the French national assembly and chair of its foreign affairs committee; Bogdan Klich, Polish senator and former defence minister; Mauro Moretti, CEO of Finmeccanica; Reimund Neugebauer, president of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft; Arndt Schoenemann, acting director of Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH; Teija Tiilikainen, director of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs; and Nick Witney, former head of the European Defence Agency. (Jean Comte)