On several occasions on Saturday 17 February, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker underlined the need to improve European defence procurement.
“We must simplify and improve the procurement system”, he explained during his speech at the Munich Security Conference. “We must make European defence policy, and procurement in particular, more effective”, he added. The Commission president reiterated that there were 178 different kinds of weapons, 20 types of aircraft and 17 kinds of tanks in Europe, while the Americans have, respectively, 30, 6 and just one. He went on to say that 80% of military research was at an exclusively national level and that this was as high as 90% for acquisitions.
Juncker spoke of US concern regarding NATO substitution by the EU (see EUROPE 11963). “It is not without surprise that I read that some, on the other side of the Atlantic, now imagine that the EU will become too independent when it comes to defence and security. Yes, we want to be more emancipated - but not against NATO or against the United States”, he said seeking to be reassuring. He went on to add that, for years now, the Americans have complained that the EU is not doing enough for its own defence. “We are doing so because we must do more. We cannot count solely on the Allies. We must and we want to do something ourselves to protect our security interests”, Juncker added.
Once more, the Commission president also called for an end to unanimity in the decision-making process concerning foreign and defence policy. “If we want to act in international policy, we must simplify and unify our decision-making process”, he explained. According to Juncker, “unanimity, this constraint of unanimity, prevents us from interacting in international policy”. “On many occasions, we have realised that we are not able to reach consensual and unanimous decisions”, he added, citing the question of Jerusalem, the problems in the South China Sea and human rights in China as examples. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)