It was initially billed as a €500mn sweetener to encourage European governments to work together on joint procurements of European weapons. Rebuild stocks depleted by the war in Ukraine while at the same time boost the continent’s military-industrial complex, went the thinking. It’s less clear now.
The latest draft of rules governing the European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA) remove that link. What member states are now proposing is a workaround that will — in the name of speed and short-term fixes — allow this EU fund to support joint purchases of arms from third countries.
No prizes for guessing which particular third country is likely to be top of shopping lists. It makes the F-35 fighter jet and the Patriot missile system — both in high demand from European capitals since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February.
When EDIRPA was first announced in July by internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, reporters were told that the fund would give cash to joint procurement of weapons “made in the EU but with no strings attached”.
But the latest draft of the regulation, first reported by Bruxelles2, appears instead to be quite strings-friendly, stating that “in light of the current situation”, products “subject to a restriction by a non-associated third country” are also allowed.
Negotiations are ongoing and the text could yet change again, but EU officials involved in the drafting say that the dilution is needed to meet short-term needs and restock arsenals cleared out by the necessity to supply weapons to Ukraine.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has made stark Europe’s reliance on the US for defence and security, despite determined language from Paris and Brussels on the need for “strategic autonomy”.
No member state thinks that Europe should rely on the Americans for all their defence kit. But many have spent the past eight months reassessing the feasibility of going all-European, and whether it makes sense spending years developing new platforms with other EU states when you can buy off-the-shelf stuff from Washington (and get a handshake in the White House as part of the deal).
As a case in point, the Czechs last month became the most recent EU member state to submit a bid to buy Lockheed Martin’s F-35s. With current and pending orders, by the end of the decade at least 15 of the EU’s 27 member states’ air forces will be flying American fighter jets.
“This idea that we can protect ourselves without the Americans? It doesn’t exist anymore,” said one senior EU official. “But we can take better care of ourselves at the same time as leaning on them.”
Never understood this “Buy European” initiative. The US buys plenty of things from European nations too. Beretta has long been a supplier of the US army. The USN’s revived frigate line is based on a Italian-German design. European firms were responsible for building the Freedom and Independence classes of ships. The F-35, the plane at the heart of the “Buy European” push, is also built with European partners; Italy even hosts the regional maintenance and servicing depot for the entire continent. This is neverminding the long-standing relationship between the US and BAE. Multi-national contracting keeps cost down, quality up, and the MICs competitive. The excuse might be strategic autonomy but this “Buy European” initiative reeks of the protectionism that the EU accuses the US of with the Inflation Reduction Act.
Every time I have hope in the EU it gives me arguments to want to leave it
Any focus on producing locally made fighter jets is obviously not going to effect sales of this generation jets… It’s about producing a fully European alternative of a 6th gen fighter which is definitely possible with all the combined experience Europe has.
The main reason the F-35 is even a viable option economically compared to the European alternatives is that so many countries have bought them (which brought the price down significantly) and that the European manufacturers like SAAB and Dassault are to dependent on US made components. If enough European countries committed to buying European we could definitely produce a competitive fighter at a lower price than it would cost to buy from the US.
4 comments
It was initially billed as a €500mn sweetener to encourage European governments to work together on joint procurements of European weapons. Rebuild stocks depleted by the war in Ukraine while at the same time boost the continent’s military-industrial complex, went the thinking. It’s less clear now.
The latest draft of rules governing the European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA) remove that link. What member states are now proposing is a workaround that will — in the name of speed and short-term fixes — allow this EU fund to support joint purchases of arms from third countries.
No prizes for guessing which particular third country is likely to be top of shopping lists. It makes the F-35 fighter jet and the Patriot missile system — both in high demand from European capitals since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February.
When EDIRPA was first announced in July by internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, reporters were told that the fund would give cash to joint procurement of weapons “made in the EU but with no strings attached”.
But the latest draft of the regulation, first reported by Bruxelles2, appears instead to be quite strings-friendly, stating that “in light of the current situation”, products “subject to a restriction by a non-associated third country” are also allowed.
Negotiations are ongoing and the text could yet change again, but EU officials involved in the drafting say that the dilution is needed to meet short-term needs and restock arsenals cleared out by the necessity to supply weapons to Ukraine.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has made stark Europe’s reliance on the US for defence and security, despite determined language from Paris and Brussels on the need for “strategic autonomy”.
No member state thinks that Europe should rely on the Americans for all their defence kit. But many have spent the past eight months reassessing the feasibility of going all-European, and whether it makes sense spending years developing new platforms with other EU states when you can buy off-the-shelf stuff from Washington (and get a handshake in the White House as part of the deal).
As a case in point, the Czechs last month became the most recent EU member state to submit a bid to buy Lockheed Martin’s F-35s. With current and pending orders, by the end of the decade at least 15 of the EU’s 27 member states’ air forces will be flying American fighter jets.
“This idea that we can protect ourselves without the Americans? It doesn’t exist anymore,” said one senior EU official. “But we can take better care of ourselves at the same time as leaning on them.”
Never understood this “Buy European” initiative. The US buys plenty of things from European nations too. Beretta has long been a supplier of the US army. The USN’s revived frigate line is based on a Italian-German design. European firms were responsible for building the Freedom and Independence classes of ships. The F-35, the plane at the heart of the “Buy European” push, is also built with European partners; Italy even hosts the regional maintenance and servicing depot for the entire continent. This is neverminding the long-standing relationship between the US and BAE. Multi-national contracting keeps cost down, quality up, and the MICs competitive. The excuse might be strategic autonomy but this “Buy European” initiative reeks of the protectionism that the EU accuses the US of with the Inflation Reduction Act.
Every time I have hope in the EU it gives me arguments to want to leave it
Any focus on producing locally made fighter jets is obviously not going to effect sales of this generation jets… It’s about producing a fully European alternative of a 6th gen fighter which is definitely possible with all the combined experience Europe has.
The main reason the F-35 is even a viable option economically compared to the European alternatives is that so many countries have bought them (which brought the price down significantly) and that the European manufacturers like SAAB and Dassault are to dependent on US made components. If enough European countries committed to buying European we could definitely produce a competitive fighter at a lower price than it would cost to buy from the US.