The Director of the European Defence Agency, Jorge Domecq, called on Member States on Tuesday, 26 March, to invest more in defence-related research.
“Research is becoming more and more important in Europe. We need to invest more, there are still efforts to make”, he stressed on the sidelines of the ‘Capability-Driven Defence Research and Innovation Conference’ in Bucharest.
The director recalled that Europeans had not reached the level of investment and research approved in 2007. At that time, Member States agreed that defence research and technology (R&T) should represent 2% of total defence expenditure and that European collaborative defence R&T should represent 20% of total defence R&T expenditure.
However, while in 2007 European R&T spending in the defence sector was 2.8 billion, it was only 1.7 billion in 2017, a decrease of 38%. There is a shortfall of 2.6 billion to reach the 2% target.
The same goes for collaborative R&T, which fell from €362 million in 2007 to €153 million in 2017 (down 58%), a shortfall of €188 million to reach the 20% target.
Mr. Domecq also asked Member States to make “great efforts” regarding disruptive technologies, including artificial intelligence, which he said would change the way the armed forces are organised.
For Mr. Domecq, it is also important that research be developed in a cooperative manner. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)