EU excludes procurement from most US, UK & Turkish defence firms through €150 bn defence fund
New Delhi: In an attempt to wean itself from its dependence on American weapons, the European Union (EU) Wednesday announced its intention to buy more European-made arms, and have excluded procurement of arms from most companies located in the US, the UK and Türkiye from its new EUR 150 billion defence fund.
“SAFE [Security Action for Europe] will also allow acceding countries, candidate countries, potential candidates and countries having signed a Security and Defence Partnerships with the EU to join common procurements and contribute to aggregated demand. They can also negotiate specific, mutually beneficial agreements on the participation of their respective industries in such procurements,” said the EU Commission in its website.
The European Commission unveiled a White Paper for European Defence and the ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 Wednesday. Under the plan, the EU will urge its member-states to procure their military equipment from Europe, from European manufacturers.
The plan sees the US, the UK and Türkiye, all countries with extensive defence manufacturing capabilities left outside of the strategy, unless they are willing to sign specific agreements with the EU. For the EU, the plan is partly aimed at its immediate geographical neighbour—Russia—which the White Paper declares as a “fundamental threat” to European security for the foreseeable future.
France has been one of the biggest supporters of the “buy European” policy within the EU, given its large defence industry, according to media reports. However, potential third countries, such as the US, the UK, Türkiye and even India could potentially sell to the EU, provided they sign a Security and Defence Partnership with Brussels.
“Security and defence cooperation with India has developed over the past years, including through regular Security and Defence Consultations. The EU and India will further explore a Security and Defence Partnership,” notes the White Paper on a potential partnership with New Delhi.
The security and defence partnership between India and the EU was a key theme of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to New Delhi at the end of last month.
She announced that both sides are keen on exploring this partnership, in a similar vein to the deals Brussels already has with Japan and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
Also read: Estonia keen to collaborate with India on defence production, says Estonian foreign secretary
Buy European
Ursula von der Leyen has urged the EU member-states to buy European in an effort to strengthen the European defence and industrial base.
“We are taking decisive action, presenting a roadmap for ‘Readiness 2030’, with increased defence spending, important investments in European defence industrial capabilities. We must buy more European. Because that means strengthening the European defence technological and industrial base,” said von der Leyen on the plan.
The EUR 150 billion defence fund, first announced by von der Leyen earlier this month, would allow the countries in the 27-member bloc, to apply for loans from the EU to purchase new military equipment as long as at least 65 per cent of the total equipment is from suppliers from the bloc, Norway or Ukraine.
This loan is available only for EU member-states, however, Ukraine and members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA—Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), would be able to participate in the common procurement process, which would see countries pooling together to make defence purchases.
The strategy comes as the US, which has long been the security guarantor for Europe, has under President Donald J. Trump made it clear that its priorities are now elsewhere. Trump during his first tenure as President (2017-2021) called on European countries to increase their defence spending to up to 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP), and now in his second tenure, made it clear that the US will move quickly to recalibrate its security interests.
“Traditional allies and partners such as the United States, are also changing their focus away from Europe to other regions of the world. This is something that we have been warned about many times but is now happening faster than many had anticipated,” said the White Paper.
Under the plan, the EU will focus on seven priority areas of investment—air and missile defence, artillery systems, missiles and ammunition, drones and anti-drone systems, space, military mobility, cyber and artificial intelligence (AI).
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: EU wages trade war with US, to impose counter tariff on over $28 bn worth American goods
