On Wednesday 15 October, the Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) stressed just how little room the Danish Presidency of the EU Council has to negotiate with representatives of the European Parliament this Thursday on the final elements of the future European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP).
The outstanding issue concerns the eligibility criteria for EU financial support, in particular the possibility for a European company to receive a subsidy for military equipment for which it does not have design authority.
The European Commission’s suggestion to assess whether a beneficiary company has design authority at the end of the financial support period was rejected by the Member States. Some delegations have reportedly circulated a specific model on which the Member States have until Thursday morning to adopt a position.
As far as the budget is concerned, according to a preparatory document from the Danish Presidency, a copy of which Agence Europe has received, the budget adopted appears to be close to the €1.5 billion limit. It could be supplemented by financial contributions from third countries participating in the ‘SAFE’ loan initiative. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)