Finance defense with EU funds. An idea that smells of sulfur :-)
(BRUSSELS2) Defense budgets are shrinking but the threats remain the same, how to react? It is around this equation that the Ministers of Defense are meeting, today in Brussels, in particular on "pooling and sharing". But isn't it time to revise certain postulates?
Patrice Cardot, deputy for multilateral issues at the General Armaments Council (French), thinks so. He puts his feet in the dish... In an article recently published in the Revue de Défense nationale, where the author expresses himself, in a personal capacity, he calls for " mobilize the European financial framework to provide national defense systems and the CSDP with the additional resources they need. " It is necessary " imagine robust palliative solutions to the problem posed by the continuous decline in budgets devoted to investments in the defense, space and armament sectors he explains.
political involvement...
This intervention could be of two kinds. One is political, through the exercise of controlling the public finances of the Member States (the European semester). " Among the objectives of this coordination is that of verifying the concretization in the initial finance laws of the commitments entered into by the States for the benefit of European policies, including the Union's Security Policy, and therefore the CSDP ».
and intervention... financial
The author recommends two avenues:
• the inscription “ in the general EU budget, new budget lines for CSDP and related European policies ". It is a matter of being able to draw on Community funds to finance projects relating to the European Capabilities and Armaments Policy (PECA), as defined by Article 42 of the EU Treaty. Nothing forbids it, according to the author, contrary to the " operations with military or defense implications to which the limit of Article 41 of the EU Treaty applies. It would therefore be possible for the European Commission to provide assistance to the European Defense Agency – the agency's new regulations allow such assistance from the Community budget. Similarly, nothing prevents us from thinking that the OCCAR (Organization Joint for Cooperation in the field of Armament) - which manages several armament programs (including the A400M) for several Member States - benefits from research funds, for example.
• the appeal, “ to the benefit of investment programs in the fields of defence, space and armaments, to new forms of public-private financing ". Very useful if the lack of direct funds is proven (which seems obvious in a context of budgetary restrictions), these innovative means of financing could pass, for example, guarantees, loans and equity recapitalization formulas ».
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
This proposal merits consideration. Admittedly, it could come up against a political veto fairly quickly, by combining those who, in the European Parliament and in the Member States, defend a more peaceful approach to the EU (Greens, neutral countries, etc.) or refuse a further integration of the European Union in defense matters (United Kingdom, etc.). And in these matters, discretion therefore prevails. Thus if the Community budget has allowed the purchase of the Galileo system, it is on condition that it has a civilian purpose. And any military or security applications – which do indeed exist – must remain discreet in order to endure. But it deserves to be deepened, particularly within the framework of the new Lisbon instruments (start-up funds, enhanced cooperation, permanent structured cooperation, etc.).
* P. Cardot is also co-author of a work published by the Documentation française (ENA collection): Which European budget On the horizon of 2013? Means and policies of an enlarged Union » Download this book here