THE EUROPEAN – SECURITY AND DEFENCE UNION
Defence and other EU policies The strengthening of the European Defence technological and Industrial Base is a priority for the Agency. It achieves this through a close dialogue with defence ministries and industry: full transparency is the key. The Agency has thus established Codes of Conduct for industry as well as a Code of Conduct on offsets. The Agency is also playing a central role in striving to strike a balance between the single market on the one hand, and the specificities of the defence sector on the other. To this end, it has organised a high-level seminar on Article 346. EDA is active in maximising civil-military synergies. Its expertise is available to, and utilised by, Member States in their consideration of the defence implications of a range of broader EU policies and initiatives, such as Radio Spectrum, Single European Sky, Cyber Defence, UAS and Space. The Agency is where defence ministries can identify and articulate their interests vis-à-vis these policies. Indeed, at the Steering Board meeting on 23 May, Defence Ministers addressed the defence implications of these policies: they acknowledged the positive
role that the EDA was playing, welcomed its relationship with the European Commission, and encouraged to keep up its good work.
EDA and its partners The Agency does not live in a bubble. Relationships with the broader defence community are vital. In the same way that EDA is developing its relationship with other EU institutions such as the Commission, it is also working with third parties. It already has an Administrative Arrangement with Norway, which facilitates close practical cooperation. A similar Arrangement will be signed with the European Space Agency on 20 June at Le Bourget; and, in due course, with OCCAR. An Arrangement with Switzerland is also in preparation. The Agency has established and is developing its relationship with NATO. And a number of other other third states, such as the US, Ukraine and Russia, also have dialogue and cooperation with the Agency. 1 Denmark does not participate.
Commentary
Strengthening the European defence “acquisitions” pillar Commentary on the role of EDA by Olivier Jehin, Editor-in-Chief Europe Diplomacy and Defence, Brussels While the Lisbon Treaty was largely conceived to allow a further qualitative leap in European defence matters, over the past few months CSDP has become the poor relation of a European Union having to face a deep crisis. Budgetary constraints brought on by the crisis and, in many Member States, by the bad management of public finances, have eaten still further into a political will that was already hardly perceptible. The root causes are well-known: demilitarisation of a large number of countries; different views from those who cannot picture the EU as a power or refuse to see it act in the field of defence; German pacifism; France’s return to the NATO command structure; the AngloFrench defence pact, and so on. This results in the absence of any new missions, thus giving the EU no more than a declaratory role, while implementation of the treaty becomes bogged in theological debate. A silver lining at the horizon There is, however, a silver lining to this somewhat gloomy picture. I shall just mention three rays of hope peeping out from behind the clouds. • The first relates to the ambiguity of Anglo-French cooperation, which is allied to the uncertainty hanging over the next French elections. For the British, this is a marriage of reason with a partner whose political stability is not guaranteed and which will itself be faced with difficult budgetary decisions over coming months. Furthermore, with their commitment in Libya, the two partners have also demonstrated their great dependence on the United States. Finally, Barack Obama’s reaffirmation of the “special relationship” with London, together with additional measures of favour for the British partner, seem well and truly intended to counter-balance the
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cross-Channel bilateral cooperation. The effectiveness and the duration of the Anglo-French cooperation therefore remain to be seen. • The second ray of hope is based on Poland’s determination to: move forward in implementing the treaty during the second half of this year, despite the high risk of this being purely rhetorical; actually carry out all that has been said about the pooling and sharing of capabilities; and above all create a permanent civil-military operations planning and conduct capability. • In the current context, however, hope is above all based on defence procurement. Despite the fact that it seems difficult to make progress with pooling and sharing or with specialisation, it must be said that application of the public procurement directive for the defence industry could quite rapidly bring about defragmentation of the market, consolidate the industrial base and, with a bit of luck, make member states understand that the best way to save money is to streamline and consolidate demand. The clock is running To help the defence industry and national armaments directorates understand this, it is imperative for the European Commission to undertake the first infringement procedures in coming weeks. This, with the help of lawyers, is the only way that the internal market − which seems today to have become the only way to bring about European integration in the defence field − will gradually take shape. It is in the interest of our armed forces, while also being in the interest of maintaining our technological capability and our future strategic autonomy. Source: Agence Europe, Europe Diplomacy and Defence, Nr. 421 , 13.5.2011
