ASD Europe asks EU defense commissioner to coordinate efforts for European orders

Brussels – The European defense sector has historical and structural delays that today, more than ever, pose problems of industrial and economic competitiveness and security. Everything is deferred to non-EU suppliers and technologies, paving the way for foreign players. The sector is now calling to review what so far has been done – and especially not done – and impose a real change of pace. ASD Europe, the European Association of Aerospace, Security, and Defense Industries, welcomes the new defense commissioner by offering him guidelines to follow for everyone’s sake.

“The key to reverse the persistent dominance of non-European suppliers in Europe lies in the capitals,” it is, therefore, up to the national governments, an ASD paper on non-European defense costs stresses. Member states must change how they do things, and commissioner-designate Andrius Kubilius will have to coordinate a new, more European way of doing defense. “Defense procurement decisions are an exclusive prerogative of national governments,” the industry association said. “The EU can provide incentives to cooperate and buy more European (products),” the association, whose members include, among others, Airbus, Fincantieri, Leonardo, Rolls Royce, and Saab, emphasized.

It is a political choice with repercussions on competitiveness, especially when there is much talk of a relaunch after the Draghi report, which is at the heart of the work of the new European legislature. ASD Europe points out how, in the two years since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the dominance of non-European suppliers in Europe has reached a new peak. Between February 2022 and mid-2023, acquisitions from non-European countries accounted for 75 percent of publicly announced new orders in the EU. A market and order trend that penalizes the Union in all ways.

“Most defense procurement decisions have important ramifications: militarily, technologically, strategically, and politically,” the industry association paper continues. “Consequently, the predominance of non-European suppliers on European defense markets bears far-reaching implications for Europe’s security.” Hence, ASD explicitly urges “to avoid critical dependencies and safeguard Europe’s security, national policy- and decision-makers should carefully evaluate the short- and long-term consequences of their procurement decisions and the total cost of buying non-European.”