Het Eurodefense Netwerk doet aanbevelingen voor de White Paper van Andrius Kubilius
20 January 2025
Your Excellency,
As EURODEFENSE network of sixteen national non-profit associations, working together, on the basis of its 2006 Charter, we strongly advocate for a credible defence of Europe with an efficient European pillar within NATO with the Member States and other non-EU members allies such as Norway or UK and a strong European Defence and Space industry. In this momentum, the Commission has a key role to play as facilitator, instigator and ombudsman for the Member States.
Our members have great expertise on security and defence policies and strategies, having been in the highest positions in their respective national defence organisations and with long experience in multinational, allied or EU operations and missions.
Following your request for contributions to prepare your white paper on the future of European Defence our network has prepared a set of nine following recommendations and tough choices which are attached. These recommendations and tough choices are written in consistency with the EURODEFENSE unanimously agreed reports about EDIS and EDIP which were sent to your predecessors and services by letters respectively of 29 May 2024 and of 27 November 2024.
These recommendations and tough choices are:
1) 300,000 troops + 5,000 soldiers’ operationally ready and creating a European command structure.
2) to defend Ukraine now and later.
3) stronger invitation to Member States to better spend money and to align their answers based on common operational requirements.
4) funding, recognising the unavoidable need to resort to Eurobonds and/or EU guarantees.
5) to achieve the best possible balance, at Member State level, by means of more extensive and sincere operational and procurement coordination, between several issues.
6) to focus the necessary and welcome added value of the Commission on supporting the MS in helping them to cooperate more extensively and efficiently, while not trying to take their responsibilities for them.
7) reinforcing the Alliance is contingent on reinforcing the EDTIB.
8) to obtain the necessary commitment at MS and Commission levels to reinforce Europe’s industrial strengths, to reach and maintain them at the necessary scale at the world level.
9) creating a European defence culture.
In the perspective of the European Defence Union as advocated by the President of the European Commission, a Multi annual Defence Planning Law should be introduced to cover the contribution of the Commission in this domain. This law should ensure long term availability of the funding.
Within the frame of the nine recommendations and tough choices, we would underline the following points:
1 European Command structure
The mutual defence provisions put into the Treaty on European Union were focused on crisis management, peace support, and conflict prevention operations conducted by ad-hoc (non-permanent and improvised for every operation decided) command and control elements. Therefore, to address the new security challenges and hybrid threats, the EU urgently requires a robust command structure below the European Union Military Committee. The White Paper should recommend to the Member States to address this key issue as soon as possible.
2 European Defence industry in the short term
The European Defence industry is highly scattered and not as effective as it should be. This is mainly caused by national interests. We suggested in our contribution on EDIS of 29 May 2024 10 principles to improve European national and industrial Defence capabilities in the short term. Most important of these is for member states to closely work together and consult each other before procuring new capabilities from outside the European Union. The European Commission could develop guidelines and provide incentives to accelerate cooperation and involvement of European industry.
3 European Defence industry in the long term
On the longer term the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) could be more effective and competitive when organised at the prime and supply chain levels on competitive clusters as proposed in our contribution of 29 May 2024. These clusters could support consolidation of European defence industrial companies into sustainable entities capable to compete on a global level, to provide the military capabilities we need, and reduce reliance on external actors, aligning with our overarching objectives of enhancing our security and ensuring our strategic autonomy. Such an approach would minimize duplication of efforts, limit the abundance of different systems in Europe, support harmonisation of requirements and technical standards and support European exports in a competitive market.
4 Financing industry and major projects
While Member States should increase by far their Defence funding beyond previous targets, we suggest to introduce Eurobonds, as recommended by the recent Draghi’s report, not only to reinforce the operational capabilities of the MS, but also to increase the Commission budget, as needed for incentivising enough the cooperations and to support European Projects of Common Interest (EPCI) for the 27 MS.
We suggest to also investigate an option to issue financial guarantees for defence procurement. For EU guaranteed loans, the interest rate should be the same as desired in the Eurobonds concept. Leveraging private funds also can significantly accelerate decisions, helping to address the urgent need for financing in this crucial area.
Conclusion
We strongly advocate for a more integrated and capable European defence posture in the European institutions, the Member States and industry. The current geopolitical developments require a stronger focus on territorial defence of the EU.
By implementing these recommendations and tough choices, the European Union can significantly enhance its security and strategic autonomy, ensuring a more resilient and prosperous future for our citizens.
We would be glad to elucidate and discuss these suggestions with you as soon as possible. For this purpose, we propose you to meet with a small delegation of relevant specialists and authors of our recommendations. We invite you to designate a permanent Point of Contact for our network.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Liviu Muresan
President, EuroDefense-Romania
President in Office, EURODEFENSE
Enclosure
Document “EuroDefense’s 9 Recommendations for the preparation of the White Paper on the future of European Defence.”
Copy to Mrs Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,
Vice President of the Commission
Copy to Mrs Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the Defence and Security Committee, European Parliament
Copy to Mr. Stijn Mols, EEAS Head of Division Security and Defence Policy
Copy to Mr Jiří Šedivý, Chief Executive, European Defence Agency
Copy to Mr André Erich Denk, Deputy Chief Executive, European Defence Agency
Copy to Mr Joachim Sucker, OCCAR EA Director
Copy to Mr Steven Everts, Director, EU Institute for Security Studies
Copy to Ms Maryem Van Den Heuvel, General Director for External relations
Copy to Mr Nicolas Kerleroux, Director, External Relations, Security and Crisis Management
Copy to Mr Charles Fries, Deputy Secretary General for Peace, Security and Defence
Copy to Ms Benedikta Von Seherr-Thoss, Managing Director, Peace, Security and Defence
Copy to Mr Maciej Stadejek, Director, Deputy Managing Director, Security and Defence policy
