Agence France-Presse, European Union countries made a new move May 14 to pool defense resources by adopting a common strategy to manage the business aspects of EU defense and end the patchwork approach of today.
The Defence Technological and Industrial Base (DTIB) strategy is aimed at establishing a common defense future in areas like research and development for the EU’s 27 member nations.
It would allow the EU to operate more independently in defense matters.
The strategy commits governments to clarify defense industry priorities and identify key technologies, and consolidate demand for defense materials by, for example, clubbing together to tender for certain military hardware.
It would also see them boost investment and ensure security of supply in defense goods and services.
“We can no longer decide on the equipment we need on a purely national basis, and then pursue separate national research and development programs and procurement,” said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
“This approach is no longer economically sustainable and, in a world of multinational operations, it is operationally unacceptable too,” he said.
The strategy, outlined in a document released on Monday, said that this would not mean the creation of “a ‘fortress Europe’, excluding imports from, or cooperation with, overseas defense industries.”
But it said that given difficulties EU states have accessing the U.S. defense market, it is only “natural and necessary for Europeans to cooperate more closely to ensure the future” of their own technological and industrial base.
Each EU member holds control over its own defense policy.
But France has been leading efforts to establish a relatively strong European defense identity more distinct from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has 21 members in common with the EU.
