Insight
Security of supply in EU defence: Friends in need? by Sophia Besch 17 August 2016
In its drive to establish EU-wide security of supply for the defence market, Brussels faces protectionism, a flawed notion of European strategic autonomy and mistrust among governments. On June 28th 2016, the European Union published its new Global Strategy (EUGS) for foreign and security policy. As part of its rather vague call for a “sustainable, innovative and competitive” European defence industry, the strategy stresses the need for European ‘security of supply’ in the defence sector. For national defence planners, security of supply means a guarantee that they will have access to defence equipment, irrespective of the member-state in which their suppliers are located. More concrete proposals for achieving this will be included in the Commission’s ‘Defence Action Plan’, due in the autumn of 2016, which will outline a security of supply ‘roadmap’. This insight explains the tensions and trade-offs the Commission must consider in its drive to establish EU-wide security of supply. The EU’s efforts to regulate the European defence market are relatively recent. Before the passing of the EU ‘defence package’ in 2007, security of supply in defence was largely a national prerogative. National production of defence equipment reduces the risk that supplies can be disrupted in times of crisis; and a national defence industrial base that produces innovative technologies and skills can in itself be a military advantage. Moreover, for some extremely sensitive purchases, such as cryptographic equipment or – in the case of the UK and France – components for nuclear weapons, it can be in a country’s essential security interest not to contract with a defence company based in another country. In reality, however, European governments are finding national security of supply to be increasingly costly – defence equipment prices have risen faster than the general rate of inflation for many years. As the CER has previously shown, European governments have started to spend more money on defence, but rising personnel costs are constraining the amount member-states can spend on equipment procurement and research and development (R&D). At the same time, new systems are becoming more complex and costly. As a result of buying at home, European countries are restricted to procuring fewer major weapons systems, and are finding it hard to sustain an industrial base that can deliver the full range of capabilities. If the EU wants simultaneously to have a common defence strategy, to boost
CER INSIGHT: Security of supply in EU defence: Friends in need? 17 August 2016
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