MEPs will next week vote on the report for the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP).
The aim is that the EDIP lays the foundation for deeper integration of the European defence industry and serves as a cornerstone of a common European defence.
With an ongoing war in Ukraine and uncertainty about the scale of future U.S support for European defence, the issue has risen sharply up the political agenda.
The EDIP seeks to boost the EU’s preparedness to deter any threat to European security and enable European industries to meet the needs of armed forces autonomously and independently.
Members on the EU parliament committee on security and defence will vote on the report.
Meanwhile, a top defence expert says the UK has neither the financial nor the political and diplomatic clout it once had.
Professor Paul Cornish, who is based in the UK, was speaking in the wake of the recently announced Strategic Defence Review.
Professor Cornish, a defence expert from the University of Exeter, said, “It is essential that our long-held notions about the purpose and value of our armed forces are tested against the contemporary world, and the one likely to emerge from the battlefields of the 2020s.”
“Different terms of reference are now needed, changing UK defence language and mindset from inputs – the percentage of national income allocated to defence – to output.”
The academic says that an “output-oriented approach would be fundamentally strategic rather than economic.”
It would, he adds, also be concerned with the practical matter of developing and maintaining militarily capable and credible armed forces and would have closely in mind the geographical environments in which UK armed forces might be operationally committed and the allies with whom they will co-operate.
He went on to say, “The UK has neither the financial nor the political and diplomatic clout it once had. The UK’s strategic outlook must, necessarily, be more constrained. But it can also be cleverer.”
“There is a critical need for both coherent and complementary sea and land capabilities to meet crisis and conflict in years to come. Both naval and land power, as well as air, cyber and space power, are required.”
“Security policy should prioritise deterrence and NATO. If the UK cannot afford a balanced set of military capabilities then the SDR must produce a strategic outlook that is, at least, honest. UK national strategy can no longer be based on legacy thinking; presumptions of success; a false interpretation of history (or indeed of current conflicts); a doctrine of technological supremacy; or unproven arguments.”
Elsewhere, it has emerged that EU Member States will be able to invest more easily in skills for Europe’s strategic sectors including the defence industry, the green transition and automotive, as well as regions affected by Russia’s war against Ukraine, thanks to the new amendments proposed by the Commission.
The Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness, Roxana Mînzatu, said: “Exceptional times require smarter, faster support for workers. With these proposals, we are giving Member States more flexibility to invest in skills where they are most needed.”
“This is crucial for making Europe’s economy more competitive, resilient and socially inclusive.”
By Martin Banks
