Brussels [Belgium], March 6: The European Union (EU) presented on Tuesday its "first-ever" European Defence Industrial Strategy at the EU level in response to security concerns.
"To increase European defence industrial readiness, Member States need to invest more, better, together, and European," said the European Commission (EC) in a press release, adding that the strategy presented by the Commission "sets a clear, long-term vision to achieve defence industrial readiness in the European Union."
According to the strategy, EU member states are expected to procure at least 40 percent of defence equipment in a collaborative manner by 2030, to ensure that the value of intra-EU defence trade represents at least 35 percent of the value of the EU defence market by 2030, and to make steady progress towards procuring at least 50 percent of their defence procurement budget within the EU by 2030 and 60 percent by 2035.
Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president of the European Commission for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age -- a digital strategy the EC launched in 2020, said that to respond to changes in Europe's security paradigm, EU member states' sharply rising defence budgets should be invested "together," and "European," which could enable the EU to "move from a crisis response mode to one of structural defence readiness."
"With the return of high-intensity conflict on our continent, Europe cannot wait any longer to strengthen the European defence technological and industrial base's ability to produce more and faster," said Thierry Breton, European commissioner for internal market.
As a means to deliver the strategy, the EC also tabled on Tuesday a legislative proposal for a European Defence Industry Programme and a framework of measures to ensure the timely availability and supply of defence products.
The EC said that the program will mobilize 1.5 billion euros (about 1.63 billion U.S. dollars) of the EU budget over the period 2025-2027, to continue enhancing the competitiveness of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base.
Source: Xinhua