EU slams
the door on US arms-makers in colossal defense plan.
Von der Leyen: we must buy more european
By Gregorio Sorgi, Jacopo Barigazzi and Giovanna
Faggionato - "Politico"
BRUSSELS —
United States arms-makers are being frozen out of the European Union’s massive
new defense spending plan, which aims to splash the
cash for EU and allied countries, according to defense
spending plans released Wednesday.
Also left out
— for now — is the United Kingdom.
“We must buy
more European. Because that means strengthening the European defense technological and industrial base,” said Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen in announcing the Readiness 2030 program.
In a bid to
strengthen ties with allies, Brussels involved countries like South Korea and
Japan and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in its program
that could see as much as €800 billion spent on defense.
“We need to
see not only Russia as a threat, but also ... more global geopolitical
developments and where Americans will put their strategic attention,” European Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius told reporters.
In recent
years, about two-thirds of EU procurement orders have gone to U.S. defense companies.
The Commission
presented its long-term defense policy proposal,
known as a white paper, as well as a raft of legislative proposals aimed at
making it easier for countries to boost military spending and to create a more
integrated defense market in the bloc.
“We’re not
doing this to go to war, but to prepare for the worst and defend peace in
Europe,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat.
The threat from Russia is the main driver for strengthening the
continent’s military-industrial complex — but shifts in the U.S. under
President Donald Trump are also forcing the EU to move fast.
The danger of
relying too much on the U.S. was highlighted by Trump’s sudden decision to undermine allied Ukraine by halting arms deliveries and
intelligence-sharing to pressure Kyiv into accepting peace talks with Russia.
Kallas pointed
to how Kyiv has been hampered by relying on outsiders. “They use weapons that
are not produced in Ukraine [and] sometimes there are limitations on how they
can use those weapons ... your military needs to really have free hands in this
regard,” she said.
The EU strategy underlined that while the United States is
“traditionally a strong ally,” it added that Washington “believes it is
over-committed in Europe and needs to rebalance, reducing its historical role
as a primary security guarantor.”
Allocating
the money
The most
concrete proposal is a Commission pledge to lend up to €150 billion to member
countries to be spent on defense under the so-called
SAFE instrument.
While the
loans will only be available to EU countries, friendly states from outside the
bloc may also take part in joint weapons purchases.
Joint
procurement under the SAFE proposal is open to Ukraine; EFTA’s Norway,
Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein; as well as “acceding countries,
candidate countries and potential candidates, as well as third countries with
whom the [European] Union has entered into a Security and Defence Partnership.”
As of the end
of January, the EU had six defense and security partnerships:
with Norway, Moldova, South Korea, Japan, Albania and North Macedonia.
Turkey and
Serbia, as EU candidate countries, could also potentially join.
That leaves
out the U.S. and the U.K. — although Britain’s status could change. “We are
working on having this defense and security
partnership with U.K. I’m really hoping that for the summit
which is in May, we can have results,” Kallas said.
Canada has
also made clear it wants a tighter security relationship with the EU. The
Commission on Wednesday also floated greater defense
cooperation with Australia, New Zealand and India.
“There are lot
of requests across the globe to cooperate with us,” said a senior EU
official.
The
preferential treatment for European companies is a bid to appease France, one
of Europe’s leading arms producers.
In a further
attempt to tighten the screws on non-EU companies, the deal bans foreign
countries from accessing classified information.
It also sets a
minimum threshold that 65 percent of the components eligible for funding must
be European, with that definition including Ukraine and Norway. The planned
fund would exclude weapons systems where a non-EU country has design authority
— meaning controlling its constructions or use. That would seem to cover most
joint ventures producing U.S. military equipment in the EU.
The loans will
finance joint projects by two or more members in a bid to create an EU-wide defense industry. “We do away with fragmentation
precisely by incentivizing member states to get together” and buy the same
weapons at a better price, said an EU official.
In
an attempt to
kickstart arms purchases immediately, the Commission will allow EU countries to
place orders individually for the first 12 months.
The plans
released Wednesday also allow EU member countries to get around the bloc’s
strict budget limits. They will be able to overshoot the EU’s public spending
limit up to a maximum of 1.5 percent of GDP for a period of four years.
The deadline
for requesting loans is June 30, 2027, and countries may receive the cash until
the end of 2030. They must repay loans to the Commission within 45 years
***
(Gregorio
Sorgi, Jacopo Barigazzi and Giovanna Faggionato www.politico.eu)