Portuguese submarines come up against a stumbling block… legal

(BRUSSELS2) Arms contracts are often accompanied by serious counterparties for the States or political leaders who sign the contract. These "compensations" or "offsets" often take the form of returns in the form of jobs, industrial participation but sometimes also hard-hitting advantages... It is then a question of remunerating the intermediaries under the contract, more or less occult. And sometimes it happens that envelopes get lost. We thus move from a more or less controlled terrain to a terrain closer to criminal cases. All under cover of defense secrecy.

Current affair?

The Finn Homeland was more or less caught red-handed in Slovenia (1). The Austrian Steyr for its armored Pandur has just been in the Czech Republic (2). Now it's the German's turn Ferrostaal who would have enriched a few intermediaries a little to convince his Portuguese "friends" to buy two type 209 PN submarines (the NRP Tridente and the NRP Arpão which was baptized just a year ago). A contract, obtained in November 2003 for an amount of 880 million euros, for which there are serious doubts! It is only because an anti-corruption investigation has been opened at the Munich public prosecutor's office that the pot of roses could be discovered. Portuguese justice was seized and promised to collaborate with its German counterparts.

German investigation.

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung which revealed the affair, a raid by police and anti-corruption investigators took place at the headquarters of the Ferrostaal company at the end of March. The Spiegel, which source the file of an investigator specified that a Portuguese honorary consul (that of Münich) was implicated. He reportedly approached one of Ferrostaal's board members in 1999, explaining to him that he could put them in touch with high-ranking people in Lisbon. A direct meeting would have been initiated between the industrialists and the then Prime Minister José-Manuel Barroso (now President of the Commission). The honorary consul would then have been commissioned for his collaboration under a consultancy contract.

A matter of context.

This explanation seems to me quite tenuous for the moment and very fragmentary. This kind of contract is not negotiated in a single meeting and at the level of a simple consul. It must be approved by both the Ministry of Defense and at the highest level of the State. And above all, it is based on a context. We remember that in 2002, power changed hands in Portugal. The center-right comes to power after a long period of socialist government. Defense Minister Paulo Portas, who is also the leader of one of the coalition parties, the conservative CDS-PP, opts for a significantly different approach from his predecessor. Thus, he abandoned the Airbus A400M program in open country to prefer the American C130J (3). And he makes a series of equipment including Pandur armored vehicles (hey hey! (1)) those damn submarines that have very limited use for Portugal. At least compared to other needs.

Peace of mind insurance

The man, close to business circles, apparently did not leave empty-handed from power. Before leaving, he would have taken care to make a series of photocopies, several tens of thousands of pages made by a private company... just in case... a good assurance of peace of mind. He may not be wrong Suffice to say that the case is not over, if the German and Portuguese investigators get their hands on this package.

The future of submarines posed

The former head of the navy, Vieira Matias, nevertheless supports the usefulness of this measure. He considers, moreover, that it had been approved by the main parties of the time, the majority (on the right) as well as the opposition on the left. This is not the opinion of Ana Gomes, Socialist MEP, member of the defense sub-committee in the European Parliament who, with consistency, has always denounced this acquisition and urges the Portuguese authorities to reconsider this contract (read his blog in Portuguese). The first delivery of the submarine should be made this year and payment will then be spread out from 2011, for 12 years. But, she specifies, there is really no more money in the coffers. And these submarines will remain at the quay, for lack of fuel.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) Slovenia is redoing its market at Patria in Finland?

(2) The Czech police opened an investigation in early February following the daily's revelations Mlada Fronta Dnes, which revealed that several Czech politicians were involved. But on March 31, the police chief Oldřich Martinů considered that it would be difficult to investigate, since the facts were very old. And nothing warranted a thorough investigation. It should be noted that the Czech intermediary, Pavel Musela was the victim of a serious hunting accident which caused him to lose certain faculties (memory (read the Prague Post, in English). It happens...

(3) Read: When JM Barroso dropped the Airbus A400M, out of friendship...