On Wednesday 6 September, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said that if the EU had a common vision, technological mastery and industrial expertise, then arms production would have to be increased.
“You have to be ready. (...) There’s a war on, and we have to produce what we need in time”, he explained during a briefing with journalists.
“War is on Europe’s doorstep, we want to increase defence budgets to 3%, Poland has announced 4%, Estonia 3%, but that means buying billions of euros worth of equipment every year. We need to increase capacity”, stressed the Commissioner.
In his view, no one has the capacity to produce what is needed, whether it be the United States or European countries, and neither does Russia.
Mr Breton said that he would continue to work on the implementation of the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) and on the adoption of the European Defence Investment Programme (EDIP) regulation, presented on 10 July. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Thomas Mangin)