EDIS - EuroDefense Network's letter to EU
Lettre de Jacques Rosiers, président du Réseau EURODEFENSE au Conseil européen, à la Commission européenne et au Parlement européen sur les résultats des travaux du Groupe de travail EWG30 du réseau EuroDéfense sur EDIS
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Brief note
on proposals for implementing the European Defence Industrial Strategy
The Commission and the High Representative issued on 5 March 2024 a Joint Communication on a new European Defence Industrial Strategy. The European Council on 21 and 22 March 2024 invited the Council, the High Representative and the Commission to swiftly advance work on the Joint Communication.
This Communication is indisputable step forward, in the light of the Versailles Declaration of 10-11 March 2022 and the Strategic Compass, which was adopted unanimously by the members of the European Council on 21 March 2021.
It should be worth noting that several paths need to be mapped out for the future. Among those specified in the attached document[1] , the following three directions can be identified:
The harmonisation of operational requirements, leading to a limited number of interoperable technical solutions, is a key basis for designing future European defence systems and equipment. This is a mission of the European Defence Agency, unfortunately not successful since many years due to the lack of political will of EU MS. The EDIS could be used to find new ways to enjoin EU MS to inform EDA about their operational requirements and facilitate their harmonisation and to give a clear perspective to the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB).
In this line, EU MS should also make their best efforts to align and harmonise their defence planning and defence budgets.
Inciting innovation is essential to design, develop and produce cutting edge defence systems. This constant requirement, deeply embedded in the Joint Communication, deserves more resources. Compared with the USA of which RDT&E represents 16 % of the defence budget, the EU MS collectively spent around 4% of their defence budget to R&D&T[2] . The European Defence Fund, as underlined in the Communication, is an incentive to increase cross-border defence research and development.
We need to spend more and better in Europe. We need to mobilize much more than the budget of EUR 1.5 billion proposed in the Communication. In line with the European Council who invites the Council and the Commission to explore all options for mobilising funding, the launch of a large public loan, of EUR 100 billion, should be seriously considered in a way that is acceptable for all MS.
All these paths contribute to strengthen the consolidation and industrial integration of European prime contractors into one or few competitive companies in order to sustain their technological and industrial capabilities at the best competitive world level, if not at the European level, and ensure security of supply of EU MS. They contribute also to the long term sustainability of the European supply chain, using innovation clusters open also to civil technologies or solutions. On this specific point a separate proposal developed in cooperation with by our partner Federation of European Defence Technology Associations (EDTA) is enclosed as an annex.
The political will of the EU MS is essential to implement this strategy. Establish the Council in Defence Ministers' formation would be a facilitator to achieve this.
[1] "Some comments on the main thrusts of the Joint Communication from the Commission and the High Representative on a new Defence Industrial Strategy of 5 March 2024”
[2] US FY 2022 DoD enacted and EDA 2022 defence data report.
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ANNEX B
10 principles
for urgently improve European operational and industrial Defence capabilities.
The growing tensions in the world, the electoral uncertainties, and above all the war of Russia against Ukraine and its threats to the territories of the Atlantic Alliance, stress the need to urgently improve in quality and volume the European operational and industrial Defence capabilities.
This augments the absolute necessity to prepare ourselves as Europeans to the worse scenarios.
We definitely need to spend more and better by reinforcing the common requirements among members states. At the same time, any possible defence procurement occasion has from now on to take into consideration the duty to reinforce the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) through more consolidation at the prime contractor level and more competition in the supply chain (European Defence Equipment Market- EDEM) on a long-term vision. For reasons of resilience, restructuring the EDTIB should allow and promote spreading of production throughout our continent.
To reach these objectives the following key principles should apply:
1-Be in line with the ambition of strategic autonomy - as expressed by the Strategic Compass, adopted on an unanimity basis by the 27 MS in March 2022 - and thus strengthening of NATO's European pillar.
2-Consult each other, in particular through the use of the European Defence Agency, on the harmonisation of operational needs for the short, medium and long term.
3-Regarding procurement, the following principles should apply:
- For procurement of new capabilities or off-the-shelf purchases, a clear priority should be given to European solutions, which can be compared with domestic solutions, rather than non-European solutions, while the preference generally goes as now to domestic or non-European solutions in disregard of European options.
- In case of urgent operational needs for resupplies of in-service systems, the quickest and most economical supplier could be chosen through existing contracts.
- Whenever feasible favour group purchases between Europeans
4-Launch new structuring capability developments in European cooperation reducing duplication of efforts between Europeans themselves and as much as possible the dependence on export control policies of non-member states.
5-Strengthen the consolidation and industrial integration of European prime contractors through structuring programmes in order to achieve more effective capability development and sustain their critical mass in the face of global competition.
6-Structuring of industry could be achieved using innovation clusters open also to civil technologies or solutions and limit the number of these clusters so that they are sustainable.
7-Strengthen the European supply chain, increasing its competitiveness and geographical diversity.
To this end, open up competition between European groups (prime contractors and supply chains) as much as possible from the upstream phases of R&T, to focus on disruptive technologies, knowing that the involvement of the maximum of the innovation resources of each and all the EU countries is necessary, which has nothing to do with the outdated mechanisms of juste retour, which is simply incompatible with the world-wide competition. The gains in competitivity could be contributed by formation and support of trans-European and regional clusters by technological domain [1]
.8-Strengthen the critical mass by facilitating defence exports, a key element in the deepening of strategic relations with third countries, with due reference to the trilateral agreement FRA/DEU/ESP which GBR, NLD and ITA now wish to join.
9-Involve third countries in European co-development and production, as long as they adhere to these key principles.
10-Launch, when the best solution can only be built at the complete European level, such as Galileo, EU owned defence assets programmes.
[1] See EDA CapTech concept
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« Annex C - Clustering the EDITB » is attached below

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