On Wednesday 28 January, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius announced at the European Defence Agency’s (EDA’s) annual conference: “On 2nd February, I will convene the first meeting of the Security of Supply Board. Its task: to support the Commission to implement the first ever EU defence security of supply regime”.
Within this Board, the Commission and Member States will map and monitor defence supply chains and assess ways to avoid security-related supply crises. “We will mobilise our budget to address bottlenecks in our defence supply chains”, the commissioner promised.
Mr Kubilius stated that the Commission and the Member States will ensure that all conditions are in place to support an acceleration in defence industry production and that the Commission will assist Member States in pooling their requests through joint procurement “to their benefit and to the benefit of EU industry”.
Mr Kubilius took the example of missiles, pointing out that they were an “urgent priority”. “I will go on a ‘missile tour’. Asking industry: 'How many missiles can you build?' 'What are the bottlenecks in supply chains?' And we will use this missile mapping to ramp up defence production“, he explained, adding that the EU will also organise more implementation dialogues with industry.
For her part, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas said that “European industry must simply deliver”. “Why? Because otherwise, the money will go abroad, to those industries that can”, she warned.
According to Kaja Kallas, “Europe is no longer Washington’s primary centre of gravity. [...] NATO needs to become more European to maintain its strength. [To achieve this,] Europe must act”. A view shared by Andrius Kubilius. He believes that we “must build a European pillar of NATO. Together in the European Union, together in NATO and together with Ukraine”.
We must build our defence independence “very quickly, without delays and excuses”, he added.
Strengthen the EDA. EDA Chief Executive André Denk explained that “EU cooperation has never been as crucial as it is now“. “Incursions of Russian drones into our air space show that the threat is concrete, it’s not abstract, it’s there. We cannot forever rely on US intelligence, on their logistic support, on their strategic enablers”, he warned, advocating for a strengthening of his agency’s mandate (see EUROPE 13770/18).
Mr Denk announced that he would be presenting “very concrete“ proposals for strengthening European cooperation “in the upcoming days”. “We are determined to do more to support our shareholders better from innovation to joint procurement, capability development to policy”, he explained. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)