Four Proposals for a Defence Procurement Plan for the European Union

We are currently in a pivotal period of the European construction in the field of defence and armament.

European defence and armament as it exists nowadays, was built under the impetus of France and Germany. It was however only made possible with the consent of the British, symbolised by the St Malo French‐British summit in 1998. Since January 1, 2003, European defence can lead military operations; it defines the resources necessary to these operations – namely, the Headline Goals – and it has at its disposal a body, the European Defence Agency, tasked with addressing capability gaps that have been identified with the ultimate goal to launch European cooperative armament programmes.

Nevertheless, the latter function has remained only theoretical for lack of agreement between the States to initiate the cooperation programmes. It must be said that European defence came into being in times of peace. The last sentence of the 2003 European Security Strategy stated, “Europe has never been so prosperous, so secure nor so free”…