THE EUROPEAN – SECURITY AND DEFENCE UNION
OCCAR: a centre of excellence for cooperative programmes
Creating the instruments for transatlantic armament cooperation Interview with Matteo Bisceglia, Director of OCCAR, Bonn
T
he European: Mr Bisceglia, you have been the Director of the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) in Bonn since 2019. OCCAR was established by Jacques Chirac and Helmut Kohl in 1995 to facilitate and manage collaborative European armament programmes throughout their life cycle. Is it a success story? Matteo Bisceglia: Yes, it is! Twenty years ago, OCCAR’s initial Programme Portfolio consisted of a small number of programmes, but since then has progressively increased to 16 programmes with a total operational budget of around €80bn that OCCAR manages on behalf of its Member States and Non-Member States. By managing programmes from the definition stage up to disposal, OCCAR lives up to both its mission and vision, becoming at the same time a valuable vehicle for the EU in its aim for strategic European defence autonomy. The European: What are your systems of reference? Matteo Bisceglia: OCCAR procures and delivers defence systems that should become the reference baseline within the European defence scenario. The organisation manages different and diverse armaments cooperation programmes such as, among others, A400M, FREMM, ESSOR, MALE RPAS, and Boxer whilst improving efficiency and reducing costs, along with con-
Vice Admiral Matteo Bisceglia has been the Director of OCCAR since September 2019. He earned his engineering degree from the University of Pisa in 1983 and then started his naval officer carrier. Among various positions, he was the Italian representative at the NATO Sparrow Project in Washington DC (1990-1993), Deputy Director of Maintenance Department of Navy Yard, La Spezia (1995-1997), and Programme Manager at OCCAR, Bonn (2010-2014). Before
tributing to strengthening the European Defence Technology and Industrial Base (EDTIB). The European: OCCAR was founded in 1996 on the so-called French-German Principles of Baden-Baden (1995). Have you been successful in meeting the “juste retour” criterion, creating a global balance of work over several programmes and years? Matteo Bisceglia: Through the global balance principle, nations have renounced the principle of juste retour, moving away from the application of “cost-share equals workshare” in order to achieve a global balance of work over several projects and years. The European: Does that mean that OCCAR promotes greater freedom in the supplier selection? Matteo Bisceglia: Indeed, and we achieve a more cost-effective approach, which is beneficial to national industries including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), maximising the benefits of collaboration for strengthening the competitiveness of the EDTIB. This approach enhances the creation of complimentary industrial and technological expertise in the relevant fields between Member States, thus guaranteeing support for their own armed forces. The European: Has the application of programme management procedures based on best practices led to cost effectiveness and competitiveness? Matteo Bisceglia: To tackle cuts on defence spending, OCCAR strives to develop and optimise programme management methods to fulfil all customers’ expectations. To this end we adopt efficient procurement best practices, based on lessons learned and standard competition processes, thus improving the effectiveness of the EDTIB and delivering best value-for-money defence systems.
becoming the Director of OCCAR, Vice Admiral Bisceglia was in charge of the Naval Armaments Directorate of the Italian MoD in Rome (2014-2019).
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The European: Your organisation has become a centre of excellence in armament cooperation, but it is not alone in Europe. There are also the European Defence Agency (EDA) in Brussels
