BRUSSELS: EU officials on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious proposal to massively boost weapons production and procurement in the bloc to shift from a reliance on US arms and in reaction to Russia's attack of Ukraine.
The European Commission says the 27-nation bloc is facing a new "security paradigm" with an expansionist Russia operating a wartime economy as it presses into year three of the conflict with Kyiv.
"To counter the return of high-intensity war on our border, we have decided to kick up a gear," EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton told reporters in announcing the new initiative.
The European Defence Industrial Strategy aims to give incentives to European arms manufacturers to invest more, make their production more agile and to collectively catalogue what they have available.
"We must take more responsibility for our own security, while, of course, remaining fully committed to our Nato alliance," said European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager.
"We need to get that transatlantic balance right, irrespective of electoral dynamics in the US," she told reporters, in a nod to Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump casting doubt on the US commitment to its Nato allies should he win reelection.
Breton has spoken of an ultimate need for some 100 billion euros for the European Union to rival the Pentagon and US defence industry.
To kickstart the project, the commission plans to set aside 1.5 billion euros from the EU's current budget that runs to 2027 -- an amount Vestager acknowledged "is not a lot of money" given the scale of the initiative.
The EU's proposed strategy aims to have trade of weapons within the bloc reaching 35 percent of total value of the EU defence market by 2030.
Member states will also be encouraged to procure European weapons to a level of at least 50 percent of their defence budgets by 2030 and 60 percent by 2035.
A defence industrial readiness board would be created to bring together member countries, the commission and the EU's top diplomat, currently Borrell, to coordinate.
One mechanism would be set up for common arms procurement across the bloc, and another to support defence cooperation including through potential tax breaks.
Importantly, Ukraine would be treated as a "quasi member" of the initiative, which would open the way for it to more easily purview and tap arms production and supplies in the EU -- should its war against Russian troops be ongoing then. — AFP
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