EU Defence Plan: My comments

In the context of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the European Commission today presented its EU Defence Plan to close the defence investment gap.

Here are my comments (link in German) as a member of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence:

"The Greens/EFA Group welcomes the European Commission's proposal which takes up our calls for consolidation of the European defence industry and Europeanisation of military spending. If EU member states follow the proposal, they will finally stop competing with each other on the armaments market, which anyway only benefits the arms industry. We have known for a long time that we can save billions and protect our citizens better with joint procurement. The proposal to create a solid framework for joint procurement, maintenance and supply is clearly a step forward. We call on the EU Commission and the EU High Representative to consistently follow up on the necessary steps and to europeanise the growing national defence budgets.

We welcome that the EU Commission wants to support member states in restocking their ammunition, and the European defence industry in achieving adequate production capacity. The EU Commission should create appropriate legal tools to ensure technical interoperability and security of supply. The proposal is conspicuously silent on the issue of arms exports. Enhanced cooperation on arms financing and procurement must be accompanied by equally ambitious proposals for a common and coherent implementation of the existing criteria on arms exports."