Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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| ROADMAP | |
| Roadmaps aim to inform citizens and stakeholders about the Commission's work in order to allow them to provide feedback and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Citizens and stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to make available any relevant information that they may have. | |
| Title of the initiative | Action Plan on synergies and cross-fertilisation between the civil, defence and space industries |
| Lead DG – responsible unit | SG, Unit H2 – Coordination of Foreign, Security and Defence Policy Implementation (incl. Political and Security Committee) |
| Likely Type of initiative | Commission Communication |
| Indicative Planning | Q1/2021 |
| Additional Information | ̶ |
| This Roadmap is provided for information purposes only and its content might change. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by the Roadmap, including its timing, are subject to change. | |

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| A. Context, Problem definition and Subsidiarity Check |
| Context |
| EU industry is facing unprecedented global competition in a changing geo-political context, but also new opportunities with the emergence of rapidly evolving technologies and new actors. Staying abreast of these developments is strategically important for Europe’s industrial future and technological sovereignty, especially as the COVID-19 crisis is hitting industry severely.  The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the EU Recovery Plan propose significant investments in research, development and innovation on defence, space and security, but also on related civilian areas. The impact of these resources can be maximised by fostering new and existing synergies and cross-fertilisation in EU programmes, in particular with regard to new technologies, encouraging cooperation across industries.  The present action plan was first announced in the new EU Industrial strategy, and confirmed in President von der Leyen’s Letter of Intent to the European Parliament and Council. It falls under the European Commission’s political priority of a Europe fit for the digital age, with links to the priorities on a Stronger Europe in the world and the European Green Deal. The importance of cross-fertilisation and synergies between civil, defence and space industries was underlined in the mission letters to the members of the Commission. |
| Problem the initiative aims to tackle |
| As global competition is becoming fiercer and the EU is facing the economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, the EU defence and space industries need to make effective use of resources and technologies, if they want to maintain and enhance their competitiveness, as well as to maximise benefits for the wider economy and society.  This includes exploring new opportunities for innovation, growth and job creation arising from synergies and cross-fertilisation with civil industries, which could contribute to securing strategic value chains, improving the resilience of existing industries and achieving economies of scale. This could be pivotal for EU competitiveness and sovereignty in many critical economic and technological areas.  Close synergies already exist between space, defence and security industries, e.g. for dual use applications under the EU's Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS). Action will however be needed to coordinate better between programmes, raise awareness and create a more favourable environment for these industries to exploit the potential of synergies and cross-fertilisation with other civil industries.  The next MFF provides significant investments in research and capability development related to defence and space, but also to security and other related civil industries, such as the European Defence Fund (EDF), the European Space programme, Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme, the Connecting Europe Facility or the InvestEU Programme. A closer and targeted coordination of relevant actions in EU programmes in the context of an action plan has the potential to multiply the expected return on investments.  However, money is not enough. The defence and space industries face specific challenges and limitations that need to be overcome, including long development cycles, restricted markets depending strongly on governmental customers and fragmentation of markets along national lines, limited access to commercial end export markets, restrictions on exploitation of intellectual property rights (IPRs), significant up-front investment costs, the need to protect security of information, and limitations in the lending policies of financial institutions.  In addition, the role of space as a key enabler for innovation for civil applications needs to be further promoted. Space data and services generated by Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus can be used for applications in areas as different as health, agriculture, climate and environment, transport, energy, finance, customs and security. Together with the digital transformation of industries and the rise of new digital technologies this may open the door for entirely new and accessible areas for synergies and cross-fertilisation between the civil, defence and space industries, including for start-ups and SMEs, which could benefit Member States with no space or defence industry of their own.  In order to be successful, coordination will also be needed across policies in order to create a favourable environment for this research, development and innovation, as well as for its uptake by the (export) market, downstream sectors and the public sector. |
| Basis for EU intervention (legal basis and subsidiarity check) |
| The initiative falls under the competence of the EU according to Articles 179, 182 and 189 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Therefore, the subsidiarity principle does not apply.  The initiative aims to promote and support synergies and cross-fertilisation between the civil, defence and space industries by improving coordination between relevant EU policies and programmes and creating a favourable policy environment for stakeholders in the different industries to engage with each other at EU level. Some outreach activities may be needed, as many of the relevant stakeholders have not worked with each other before. The initiative has the potential to inspire complementary actions at Member State level, for example in the case of co-funded EU projects. |
| B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how |
| The initiative will first analyse the links between the space and defence industrial ecosystem and industries on a wide range of civil uses (including security) with the aim to identify opportunities for added value at the level of programmes and for technologies, standards, skills, innovation and start-ups. It will analyse all relevant Commission-led activities (e.g. policies, programmes or investment support, standards, regulatory framework) and propose new initiatives and measures that increase the benefits for industries and users, and support EU technological sovereignty and resilience, in particular relating to critical technologies and strategic value chains. The optimisation and prioritisation of technology-based capabilities may be envisaged for particularly promising areas of synergies.  Hence, the initiative will pave the way for enabling synergies and cross-fertilisation between defence, space and civil research, development and innovation at EU level. Special emphasis should be given to:  ·Encouraging spin-offs of defence research into civilian life, but also spin-ins from civil technology research into defence. Few technologies are civil or military by nature, especially at low technological readiness levels. The new EDF and the strengthened Security programmes offer an opportunity to support synergies and cross-fertilisation between civil and defence research with a focus on critical technologies;  ·Promoting the enabling role of space for the digital transformation of Europe, in particular in the areas of quantum technology, connectivity, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and the data economy, as well as for the generation of space data as basis for a very wide range of civil or dual use applications;  ·Supporting the deployment on the EU market of products and services arising from these synergies and cross-fertilisations, notably through the development of “hybrid standards”, i.e. standards that can apply both to civil security and defence technologies in areas where technologies are the same and application areas are very similar;  ·Supporting the identification of strategic value chains with a view to improve the resilience of existing industries (including SMEs) and the EU’s technological sovereignty   ·Supporting the identification of disruptive technologies through the promotion of start-ups and SMEs, thereby facilitating their access to EU programmes;  ·Reaching out to a broad range of industries and entrepreneurs to raise awareness for these synergies and cross-fertilisation;  ·Proposing new flagship initiatives.  The initiative will present a limited number of priority actions to support these objectives. |
| C. Better regulation |
| Consultation of citizens and stakeholders |
| N/A. The present initiative is an action plan. It was announced in the EU Industrial Strategy of 10 March 2020. Its main aim is to coordinate and support synergies and cross-fertilisation between civil, defence and space industries in EU programmes and policies, and thus to improve existing EU processes.  The input received from stakeholders on the present roadmap will be integrated in the Commission’s analysis. |
| Evidence base and data collection |
| N/A. This action plan does not require an impact assessment because its main purpose is to coordinate and support existing EU processes. It will only indirectly have economic, environmental or social impacts.  The input received from stakeholders on the present roadmap will be integrated in the Commission’s analysis. |

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