Debate: European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act
Date: MONDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Virginijus Sinkevičius
Language: EN

For the first time, the EU budget will encourage Member States to jointly procure the most urgent and critical defence products. This is an historic step forward. With this new initiative, our objectives are manifold.  First, we want to respond to the difficult proof the war in Ukraine made bluntly clear: Europe must restore its collective defence capabilities. Since 24 February, together with our allies and through the mobilisation of the European Peace Facility, we have organised and supported the transfer of arms to Ukraine. It is a massive effort – unprecedented.  However, to facilitate the support, the Member States must draw on their stocks: ammunition, light or heavy artillery, anti-aircraft or anti-tank defence systems, armoured vehicles, tanks and as we recently heard, even F-16s. This both limits the possibilities of Member States to provide further support to war-ravaged Ukraine and weakens Member States’ defensive capacities. We must address this urgently. With the new European joint procurement instrument we are proposing a European mechanism to carry out part of this stock recovery effort. This will come in support, for instance, of the recent framework contract that the EDA just managed to conclude on ammunitions as part of the three-track approach on ammunitions, and this shows that there is increasing momentum within Member States to join procurement. EDIRPA will help us to sustain and increase this momentum.  Secondly, we want to avoid fragmentation. Many Member States have announced a significant increase in defence spending in the face of the new security situation. There is a risk, however, that investments will be made purely along the national lines, and that would mean a fragmentation of armaments offers, a very damaging lack of interoperability and a challenge to the efforts made with the European Defence Fund to develop an integrated a European Defence Industrial Base. With EDIRPA, we offer Member States a path, a European alternative, by creating a common incentive and investment framework.  Thirdly, we want to support the adaptation of the European industry to the harsh reality, the return of high intensity conflicts in our continent. Our industrial base is currently not prepared, neither in terms of volume nor pace to cope with the new security situation at our borders. And since Member States need the same equipment at the same time and in large volumes, there is a great risk of competition between Member States leading to higher prices and above all non-guaranteed access to key capacities.  As we have done with vaccines, we must therefore act in the interest of all Europeans to smooth out emergencies, evenly distribute available capacities and support an accelerated race in our industrial base. No Member State should be left behind. EDIRPA has been developed and will be implemented in full synergy with another important initiative – the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) endorsed by the co-legislators in record time.  So, the Commission is grateful to the European Parliament and the Council for their swift reaction. EDIRPA allows for the structuring of demand, while ASAP supports the ramping-up of ammunition production. The Commission will implement both programmes in a diligent and timely manner. This is our collective responsibility to ensure continued support for Ukraine and the security of our Member States.