As the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated in her speech at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, “While the threat of war may not be imminent, it is certainly not an impossibility. We should not exaggerate the risks of war, but at the same time, we should not be complacent. We need to be prepared, and this preparation begins with the urgent need to rebuild, replenish and modernize the armed forces of our Member States.
In the pursuit of this goal, Europe should strive to develop and produce the next generation of successful operational capabilities. We need to ensure that we have sufficient material and technological superiority that will be needed in the future. This will mean boosting our defense industrial capacity over the next five years,” she added.
Von der Leyen continued, “The European Peace Facility has mobilized 6.1 billion euros to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces with both lethal and non-lethal military equipment and supplies. The European Defense Fund is investing in high-end defense capabilities in critical sectors like air, naval, land combat, space early warning, and cyber. We have also made significant strides in growing our industrial and manufacturing capabilities in the defense sector. In the coming weeks, we will announce the award decisions under the ASAP programme. This funding will enable us to roughly double European ammunition production to over 2 million bullets per year by the end of 2025.”
“Common purchases of weapons, as we did with gas and vaccines”
“In terms of spending, Europe must spend more, spend better, and spend in a European way. We will present some proposals in the coming weeks with the first European industrial defense strategy. One of the key objectives of this strategy, and of the European Defense Investment Program which will follow, will be to prioritize joint procurement in the defense sector. This is similar to what we have done with vaccines or natural gas. This will help us reduce fragmentation and increase interoperability. But to achieve this, we must collectively send a strong signal to the industry. For this, we will explore how to facilitate off-take or advance purchase agreements where we provide guarantees. This would give our defense companies stable orders and predictability in the long term.”
She further expressed, “I would like us to think bigger. It’s time to start a discussion about using extra profits from frozen Russian assets to jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine. There could be no greater symbol and better use of that money to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live. The defense industry in Europe needs access to capital. I would like to encourage our public and private lenders to support our defense industry and in particular SMEs. Even in defense, SMEs are the backbone of our industry. They are the engine of innovation. And a critical factor in the single market. And the topic needs undivided attention. This is why I am personally in favor of a Defense Commissioner designate for the next Commission.”
