Creating a defense union is a distant goal in the EU

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency, newspaper ” Tagus Shaw wrote in an article: The war against Ukraine and the possible presidency of Donald Trump in the United States of America clearly show that EU countries should do more to defend themselves. But when it comes to arms and defense procurement, there is a lack of cooperation in this union. Europe should wake up on defense because according to him prosperity and freedom depend on independent security. At the European Union summit in Versailles, France, the heads of state and government of the European Union pledged to take more responsibility for European security. Based on the decisions made, defense spending should be increased significantly, joint investments in defense should be made, and strategic dependencies should be reduced.

The article states: According to the report of the commission, the member countries of this union have increased their defense expenses by 20% since 2022. With Finland and Sweden joining NATO, European partners have become closer.

EU member states are also supporting Ukraine in its defensive battle against Russia. To do this, they released funds from the European Peace Facility (EFF), a pot of money outside the EU budget. Before the start of the war in Ukraine, the fund was intended as a crisis fund to contain conflicts and maintain peace, but its size was too small to carry out the enormous task of helping Ukraine. Since the beginning of this fund, its budget has increased several times and now it has reached about 17 billion euros. With the money of this fund, EU countries were able to purchase new military equipment while handing over their old stockpiles to Ukraine.

The longer the war in Ukraine drags on, the more Brussels will think about how to organize long-term logistics, as well as how to adapt its armies to a more threatening security situation. In addition, the European defense industry needs planning security, and the question arises as to how much the smartest purchase can be. In March of this year, the EU Commission presented the European Defense Industry Strategy. Its purpose is to encourage governments to buy more in a coordinated manner, thereby avoiding buying weapons systems twice or more than once. Ukraine is also allowed to participate in this program.

“Margaret Vestager”, the vice president of the European Union Commission, announced based on calculations that from the beginning of the war in Ukraine until June 2023 EU member states have spent more than 100 billion euros on weapons. 80 percent of the purchases were made by defense companies outside the EU, and more than half of that money went to the United States. He does not consider this to be a stable and suitable condition.

Therefore, the declared goal is that the member states will purchase more than half of their weapons from European defense companies by 2035. to buy The EU Commission wants to promote this, including through better tax conditions. In the future, the European Investment Bank could also play a more important role, which until now has specialized in climate projects, but could become a kind of defense bank that helps attract private capital for defense.

Orzo La von der Leyen, President of the European Commission emphasized: In our new proposal for the European Defense Industry Program, we want to provide an additional 1.5 billion euros from the EU budget. He emphasized: “We know this can work and we are showing the way for a more independent union.” In addition to joint purchasing, this money also It will be used to ensure the maintenance of supply chain and inventories. However, it cannot be said that EU countries are interested in this program. There are concerns that this would essentially subsidize French and German arms companies without benefiting other EU countries. For some European capitals, this proposal of the European Union Commission is also a kind of excessive transfer of authority to Brussels. More with each other in the field of defense has been difficult so far. A program to develop joint military capabilities has been running since 2017, called PESCO, and has launched more than 60 joint defense projects. However, the expected synergistic effects were largely unrealized.

This article continues: The arms market in the EU is still highly fragmented. This is due, among other things, to different ideas of weapons policy and different interests of manufacturers. France especially emphasizes the idea of ​​buying European. Unlike France, to help Ukraine effectively and quickly, Germany also believes that it is appropriate to buy outside Europe – where, according to Berlin, weapons are more quickly and easily available, for example in South Korea or the United States.

The final part of this article reads: Even if the path to a true defense union is unclear, defense policy certainly plays a stronger role in the EU these days. Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens raise this issue in their election campaigns. The most prominent demand these days is for a European defense commissioner. In this way, Brussels is also preparing for a future in which the United States can no longer be the guarantor of European security.

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