Paris, 26/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - French industry is expected to call for caution when opening up defence markets, Luc Vigneron, President of the Conseil des industries de défense françaises (CIDEF), said in Paris on Friday. "We are reflecting on the European Commission's Green Paper on defence markets, but I feel industrialists will say things should be taken step by step", he pointed out during the WEU seminar on European Security and Defence Policy. The fact that "European markets are open internationally", that is to American industry, justifies such caution, he explained, calling for gradual opening up of the market and "reciprocity expected of the United States".
Mr Vigneron greatly insisted on the comparative advantage held by the American defence industry, "which continues to enjoy considerable financial support", allowing it to be three times larger than the whole European industry, and which has six times more funding for research and development than the whole of European industry. The CIDEF President considers this would in time make the American defence industry "able to considerably destabilise the position of European industry". He considers, however, that transatlantic cooperation between companies is the way of the future, if they are to attain a sufficient size to carry out increasingly large projects (source: Atlantic News).