On Wednesday 19 March, in its ‘Joint White Paper for European Defence Readiness 2030’, the European Commission highlighted the need for Member States to work together to purchase military equipment, saying it was ready to support the effort.
While it is important, according to the High Representative for the Union, Kaja Kallas, to spend more on defence, “the added value of working together is priceless”. Joint or collaborative procurement is one of the most important instruments for trying to resolve the structural problems of Europe’s fragmented defence industry, added European Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius, speaking to the media.
According to the White Paper, “regardless of the format chosen by Member States, undertaking collaborative projects will enhance coordination, thus generating economies of scale and improving delivery timelines. In turn, this will boost the production capacity of European defence industry”. The Member States have set themselves a common target of 35% of total defence equipment purchases being made collaboratively.
While several frameworks for collaboration already exist, notably within NATO and via the European Defence Agency, “if so requested by Member States, the Commission could also act as central purchasing body on behalf of Member States”, says the White Paper. Speaking to the media, Kaja Kallas was sceptical about the proposal, saying that the European Defence Agency was “under-used” and that new structures should not be created.
Filling the critical capability gaps requires, among other things, according to the Commission, “EU funding and incentives to help Member States mobilise the necessary budgetary resources and spend them in the most efficient and targeted way”. States wishing to invest in the priority capabilities and tools identified by European leaders on 6 March (see EUROPE 13594/1) will be able to receive support via the €150 billion ‘SAFE’ financial instrument (see other news).
To achieve this, at least two countries, including one Member State, will have to make joint purchases. Depending on the document, the other country may be another Member State, an EFTA or EEA country or Ukraine. In the proposal for a regulation on ‘SAFE’ EU accession countries, other candidate and potential candidate countries and other third countries with which the Union has concluded a security and defence partnership (Moldova, Albania, North Macedonia, South Korea, Japan and Norway) should be allowed to participate in joint public procurement contracts with a Member State receiving financial assistance from the instrument.
Products should be purchased from industries in the EU, Ukraine, EFTA and EEA countries and must contain at least 65% components from these countries.
To increase predictability for European industry, the Commission is also proposing to encourage more systematic aggregation of Member States’ requests within the European Defence Agency in order to prepare and structure large-scale joint procurements on the basis of multi-annual contracts supported by European instruments.
It also reiterates, in line with its proposal on the EDIP programme, to launch a pilot project aimed at gradually setting up a European military equipment sales mechanism “in order to increase the availability and delivery times of European defence products” (see EUROPE 13364/2).
To see the White Paper: https://aeur.eu/f/g0u
Call for work to continue. At their European Council meeting on Thursday 20 March, EU leaders may take note of this ‘White Paper’ but, according to several sources, are unlikely to discuss it in depth because of the short time between the presentation of the text and their meeting. According to a draft set of conclusions, the leaders are expected to call for an “acceleration of work on all strands to decisively ramp up Europe’s defence readiness within the next five years”. It will invite the EU Council and the co-legislators to take the work forward, including on financing options.
To see the draft text: https://aeur.eu/f/g0r (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)