Paris, 30/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Joint Organisation on Cooperation in Matters of Armaments (OCCAR - French acronym), founded in 1996 by France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom (but the OCCAR Convention was only signed in September 1998), secured legal status on 28 January, enabling it, as a press release from the French Defence Ministry stresses, to sign contracts directly with industry, on behalf of its member states, . This is "an important step for the future of effective European cooperation in the field of armaments and a pragmatic approach for the creation of a European security and defence identity", says the press release, noting that OCCAR encourages the states to carry out cooperation programmes, improve the efficiency of management procedures for the development and procurement of common equipment at the least cost and take advantage of the "industrial poles of excellence of its member states". OCCAR has a central office in Bonn and planning offices in Paris and Koblenz.
OCCAR is open to other European countries: thus, the press release stipulates, "membership in principle of the Netherlands has already been accepted", whereas Spain has been invited to become a member following integration in OCCAR of the A400M programme (the "Future Large Aircraft") and that a Belgian request is under review.