It is high time to launch a preparatory action on defence research!

by MEP Gahler, President of the European Security Forum

Should the EU fund defence research projects and start a preparatory action on defence research? While some politicians and experts would say no, I am convinced there might be good reason to start such a common European endeavour.

Although we aren’t currently facing an immediate conventional attack against the EU, we continue to live in a volatile neighbourhood. Unpredictable action from Russia, transnational terrorism, state failure or the spread of weapons of mass destruction are risks the Union faces as a whole. At the same time, since 2003 the EU has shown an increasing commitment to world stability with more than 30 Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions abroad, where European soldiers and civilian officers alike have been serving in hostile environments such as Afghanistan or Mali.

Our servicemen and women deserve the best equipment for their mission fulfilment and their own protection. However, I question whether our member states are still able and willing to provide urgently needed capabilities which serve these two objectives.

Indeed, it is no secret that member states have failed to provide needed capabilities. The list of not-haves is well known since the 1990s. At the same time, total defence expenditure has been decreasing since 2006. During the period from 2006 to 2011 it dropped by 21 billion Euros, almost 10%, and between 2011 and 2012 it reduced further by almost 3%. In conclusion, we have less money for an increasing number of challenges on our borders or dangerous tasks being carried out abroad.

In my report on the European defence technological and industrial base, the European Parliament supported the Commission’s idea of launching a defence-oriented “preparatory action” on CSDP-related research. Even the heads of state and government agreed to this idea at their defence summit of December 2013. The preparatory action would go beyond the existing possibilities of civil-military research in the EU’s new Horizon 2020 general research programme, opening up EU financing for defence research.

Critics from the far-left claim that EU funded defence research would be illegal. However, the current legal basis of the EU on research and technological development is clear as it covers “all Union activities” under the EU’s founding treaties. Consequently, EU funding in support of research in support of CSDP activities is legal.

Another far-left criticism relates to the allegation that EU defence research would not rest on an ethical foundation. From the perspective of common sense, all EU policies enumerated in its treaties have to be considered ethical. The idea behind this is simple: the governments and parliaments of our member states have accepted EU policies enumerated in the Treaty of Lisbon.

The appetite within the out-going European Commission for launching such a preparatory action early in the current multi-annual financial framework has been very meagre. It has hidden behind bureaucratic arguments about the financial formalities of preparatory actions.

Let’s be clear: the main objective of a preparatory action is simply to explore new policy ground on an ad-hoc basis, which would be taken up on a formal basis during one of the EU’s subsequent multi-annual operating frameworks. Normally, a preparatory action takes up to three years to complete – and the Commission suggests to run the proposed defence preparatory action during 2018-2020.

Unfortunately, the Commission is not ready to formulate suggestions in response to the current political will of the Parliament and Council. For example, it has not reacted to the two options available to Members of Parliament to launch such preparatory action — much earlier.

The first option centres around the concern that there should be no gap between the preparatory action’s completion and its multi-annual framework programme. As suggested in my parliament’s report, a “bridge” could be built between any preparatory action that starts in 2018 and the launch of the EU’s next seven-year framework programme in 2021. This bridge could be built on article 185 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allows co-financing of research programmes from EU and member states sources.

As for the second option, it would not even be necessary to wait until 2018 to start a preparatory action. In this scenario, the Council and the Parliament could use their mid-term review of the Horizon 2020 programme to embed defence research in Horizon’s programme until 2020.

Whatever the procedural solution, it is important to begin the preparatory action on defence research earlier than the Commission suggested 2018 start date in order to stop the on-going loss of European knowledge and know-how in the field of defence research. If we wait till 2018, there might not be much of a European defence industry left to benefit from EU funding.

Against this background, I have been able together with colleagues to initiate a pilot project on CSDP research in the EU budget 2015. This pilot project has two objectives: first, express political will that EU funded defence research is important for MEPs; second, start preparations on the governance structure and the relation between the Commission and the Defence Agency.

External conflicts and crises will not wait patiently at our borders until we have developed modern equipment for the protection of our soldiers and the successful execution of our CSDP missions.

The preparatory action needs to start earlier and all the institutional actors –European Parliament, Member States, European Defence Agency and the Commission – need to reach agreement on what should follow the preparatory action in terms of future research goals and funding.

Michael Gahler, German Christian Democrat member of the European Parliament, is EPP Coordinator in the EP’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence, and also sits on its Foreign Affairs Committee.
He is the Conference President of the European Security Forum, which is taking place on the 17 and 18 November 2014, jointly with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Kangaroo Group, the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique and the European Security Round Table.

This article has first been published on: http://www.securityeurope.info/it-is-high-time-to-launch-a-preparatory-action-on-defence-research/