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When Emmanuel Macron plays the little alchemist with billions from the Defense Fund

(credit: Conse de l'UE, June 2018 - B2 archives - Emmanuel Macron at the European summit)

(B2) The presidency of the French republic gave a short assessment of the Sorbonne speech delivered last September. All in all interesting and normal balance sheet... if it did not include gross errors, even attempts to manipulate facts

In the " update on the Sorbonne initiative “, aired this Tuesday (March 5) on the website of the Elysée, we find under the title: common defense budget... this:

Those who know the subject, as B2 has been following it for years, have had a strange feeling: have I lost a step, forgotten a number somewhere...

Let's take the elements one by one...

1. ' The European Defense Fund [...] is now operational »

It's an illusion. The European Defense Fund (FEDef) is not yet operational. EU negotiators have just agreed on much of the settlement. But it has not yet been definitively approved, and will not be for several months. And the calls for proposals are far from being launched. Quite simply, because there is still an important detail to settle: the amount of the fund (13 billion), which is not subject tono deal (see point 3). The FEDef is therefore virtual and not operational.

2. “The Union is investing €1,5 billion in 2019 and 2020 [...] in defense research projects and in the industrial development of defense technologies. »

It is true on the bottom, false on the figure. For 2019-2020 there are indeed two preliminary programs for the European Defense Fund, one for industrial development (PEDID / EDIDP) endowed with €500 million for the two years (2019-2020) (1), the another for the preparatory action endowed with €90 million for three years (2017-2020). Even adding it all up, you don't get to 1,5 billion. A billion euros are missing. A real conjurer's trick!

3. ' ... 13 billion over the period 2021-2027”

This is a putative number. For 2021-2027, there is indeed an amount proposed by the European Commission of 13 billion euros over the seven years of the European Defense Fund (FEDEF). But this figure was not approved, per person. And it is far from it. It is indeed part of a vast negotiation on what is called the MFF, the future multiannual budgetary framework for the next seven years. The Heads of State and Government will have to arbitrate between the different priorities, in order to reach an agreement... with the European Parliament, a negotiation which is always tough, which is aggravated by the departure of the United Kingdom (which will have to be replace). This negotiation has not really started yet, it should only be in the second half of 2019. Emmanuel Macron knows it well. France — like several other Member States — are not in a great hurry, considering that there is still time. An agreement should be reached, at the very least, only at the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020 (in the optimistic hypothesis...). And it is very rare that a proposal is accepted without seeing its amount decrease. Concretely, if the FEDef comes out of the battle with 10 billion, it will be considered good. And if we reach 12 billion it will be considered a 'great victory'.

pure misinformation

Announce the operational where there is putative, make a (voluntary) error on the figures, take a forecast for a reality... All this in a single sentence, it's a feat! One can have a desire for Europe, be voluntary, set ambitions. At some point, you have to speak truth and be real. Otherwise we pass for an alchemist, who transforms lead into gold. It is not worthy of a President of the Republic, of a European official, especially when he claims to want to fight misinformation. We fight disinformation well when we give the right information.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

  1. « The financial envelope for the execution of the program for the period from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020 is set at EUR 500 in current prices” (Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1092 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018, OJEU L 200 of 7.8.2018 establishing the European defense industrial development program aimed at supporting competitiveness and capability Defense Industry Innovation Centre).

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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