On Tuesday 11 March, just a few days before the presentation of the ‘White Paper on the future of European defence’, the representatives of the main political groups in the European Parliament expressed their support for strengthening European defence.
“Defence is the priority of priorities”, stressed Rasa Juknevičienė (EPP, Lithuanian), stating that European policies should be aligned with defence needs, spending at least 3% of GDP on defence, closing the “huge insecurity gap” regarding military capabilities, building the EU’s own capabilities, while trying to strengthen the transatlantic link.
Yannis Maniatis (S&D, Greek) said he hoped the ‘White Paper’ would be “a ‘roadmap’ for the EU to deal with the geopolitical and geostrategic challenges of our time”. Like Nathalie Loiseau (Renew Europe, French), he called for a stronger European industrial base. “We need to have more projects and work on interoperability, so that the money is spent in Europe to strengthen the industrial base in Europe and reduce dependence on third countries”, explained Mr Maniatis.
According to Ms Loiseau, Europeans can no longer afford to have an industry that exports mainly outside Europe and Member States that buy mainly outside Europe. “We must adopt a strong European preference”, she argued.
According to Reinis Pozņaks (ECR, Latvian), “it is time to be bold and work towards a completely different defence strategy, combining military and civilian elements, to ensure that we are no longer the victims of hostile powers in the East or of changes in the will of our allies”.
“A historic moment for European defence”
On Wednesday 12 March, MEPs will vote on a joint resolution by the EPP, Greens/EFA, Renew Europe, ECR and S&D groups on the ‘White Paper on the future of European defence’. More than on the content of the ‘White Paper’, the resolution sets out the European Parliament’s vision of European defence.
According to the MEPs, this is “a historic moment for European defence: to become a genuine guarantor of security”. “The EU must act urgently to ensure its own autonomous security, strengthening its partnerships with like-minded partners and significantly reducing its dependencies on non-EU countries”, explains the Parliament.
According to the MEPs, the ‘White Paper’ should propose concrete measures and options to the European Council “so that truly groundbreaking and necessary efforts can be undertaken (...), addressing defence sector capability issues, industrial competitiveness and investment needs, and framing the overall approach to EU defence integration”. The ‘White Paper’ must also identify the most pressing threats, structural risks and competitors.
In the short term, strengthening European defence means defending Ukraine. Parliament therefore urges the EU and its Member States to stand firmly by Ukraine, including through the integration of its defence industry into the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base.
According to Parliament, the new long-term approach must be based on the need to be “ prepared for the most extreme military contingencies”.
The “’Strategic Compass’, the Common Security and Defence Policy, the ‘White Paper’ and the European Defence Industrial Strategy should form the basis for a comprehensive vision of European defence”, explains the European Parliament.
Recalling that the creation of a single European defence market is a priority, the European Parliament stated that European preference should be the cornerstone of all EU policies relating to this market.
“The EU must decide on a united and clear long-term vision for the European defence industry in order to provide visibility to the industry and ensure that priority needs are addressed”, it adds.
MEPs are also calling for a “significant increase in joint procurement” by Member States, including the possibility of granting the European Commission a mandate to award contracts on their behalf.
Finally, Parliament cites avenues for funding defence, including the creation of a defence bank. It stresses the need to explore without delay innovative solutions for finding additional funding, “such as investing in the defence sector, making it easier and faster to repurpose funds from one project to another, and exploring the possibility of adjusting EU funding criteria to give new prominence to security criteria in allocating spending”.
Tee the resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/fvk (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)