THE EUROPEAN – SECURITY AND DEFENCE UNION
The European Armament Cooperation needs more harmonisation of national requirements
A success story of European cooperation Interview with Patrick Bellouard, Director, OCCAR-EA*
The European: Mister Bellouard, you are celebrating these days the 10th anniversary of this International Organisation. You are after a period of growth of the agency the third Director since OCCAR obtained its Legal Status in 2001. Could you define shortly what the added value of OCCAR is to Europe’s Armed Forces? Mr Bellouard: OCCAR is a lean and agile European Organisation, customer-oriented and offering through-life leading edge programme management and corporate governance practice. The principles and the structure of OCCAR pave the way for better efficiency and cost effectiveness in the management of collaborative armament programmes. This setup was created to make available to Europe’s Armed Forces the highly complex
such as procurement agencies that usually limit their field of action to development and production. The European: And your vision? Mr Bellouard: My vision, the vision of OCCAR, is that we want to be a centre of excellence, and the first choice in Europe, in the field of the collaborative acquisition of defence equipment. The European: And what does it mean in terms of values? Mr Bellouard: We are convinced of OCCAR’s fundamental role in the establishment of a customer orientated European Procurement capability for defence equipment. We consider profes-
“In the domain of the European Defence co-operation we consider EDA and OCCAR to be natural partners, whereby OCCAR is situating itself downstream of EDA in the capability development process“. equipment needed according to their harmonised and agreed requirements, within the shortest feasible timelines and at minimum possible cost. The European: What is OCCAR’s mission and what is your vision? Mr Bellouard: The mission of OCCAR is to facilitate and manage collaborative European armament programmes through their life cycle and to manage technology demonstrator programmes, to the satisfaction of our customers. The European: Important seem to me in this sentence the words “through their life cycle” Mr Bellouard: You are fully right. These words are highlighting one of the major differences between OCCAR and other entities
Patrick Bellouard since 1 March 2008, Director OCCAR in Bonn. He was born in June 1952 and graduated as engineer in the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’espace in 1977. 1979: Fighter pilot. 1986 to 1989: head of management helicopter engines programs in the DGA. 1989 to 1992: technical adviser to the French National armament director. 1992 to 1998: French Embassy in Washington DC, MOD and DGA, Paris. 2004 to 2008: Coordinator of the French Prime Minister for the European Galileo program.
34
sionalism, teamwork and a positive attitude toward change as key values to reach the level of excellence. We consider the cultural diversity present in our organisation as a stimulating force for innovation and continuous improvement. The integrity of our staff members is of utmost importance while dealing with the financial resources and weapon systems of our Nations. The European: OCCAR has a limited number of Member Nations: six nations out of the 27 EU States. In 2005 Spain was the last accession to OCCAR. How can you explain this stagnation? Mr Bellouard: It is fully clear that since 2005 OCCAR went through a period of relative stability in terms of Member Nations. It has to be noted however that since then, more Nations joined OCCAR, not as Member Nations, but as Participating States. Whilst Turkey and Luxemburg were already participating in A400M, and the Netherlands in BOXER, also Sweden, Finland and Poland joined the OCCAR family in the framework of the ESSOR programme in 2009. In most cases, these Nations do not seem to feel the need to influence the governance of the organisation while benefiting from it for the management of the programmes they are participating in. The European: Will those countries become future members? Mr Bellouard: This is hard to predict and more a matter for OCCAR’s Board of Supervisors, than for the OCCAR-EA Director. As we understand it, non-Member Participating States are very satisfied with the OCCAR model, with the way they are treated as OCCAR-EA’s customers and with the cost-efficiency of the
*Organisation Conjointe pour la Coopération en matière d’ARmement (Executive Administration)
