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A proposed € 150 billion injection into the EU defense industry has become a new point in a long battle between France and Germany over the continent’s re-armor machine and whether it should include places outside the block.
Prominent by US President Donald Trump’s threats to end US protection generations, Europe has pledged to increase the costs of defense dramatically and increase their internal skills that have dried up since the Cold War.
Last week the European Commission proposed to collect € 150 billion that would be borrowed for the capitals to increase their military production. While the broad idea has received unanimous political support, the details are still being distributed, with heavy lobbying if cash can be spent on the wings made outside the block.
During an EU Summit on Thursday, some leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said the initiative should be open to non-EU partners with the same mind. “It is very important for us that projects that can be supported with this are open.. Countries that are not part of the European Union, but work closely together, such as the UK, Norway, Switzerland or Turkey,” Scholz said.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron, who has long supported European autonomy and increasing indoor industrial production, said “expenses should not be for the new out-of-shelf that is once again non-European”.
For gaps in Europe’s critical skills-including air defense, long-range strikes, intelligence, discovery and target-“the method is to identify the best businessmen and businesses we have,” he added.
He also said that every EU member state would be required to “review orders to see whether European orders could be determined by priority”.
Brussels diplomats are concerned that the € € 150 billion initiative will be broken by the same argument that has delayed the agreement for more than a year in the European Defense Industry Program, a fund of € 1.5 billion that disbursions for protection. Attempts to implement it to stop this winter after Paris requested a lid on what proportion could be spent on extra-EU components and banning IP protection products from third countries.
Supreme Commission officials charged with drafting a detailed proposal in the next 10 days have been encouraged to closely connect with Paris, Berlin and other capitals to ensure that it has not been blocked when it is adopted by Member States.
“There is a lot of work to do for this. It didn’t exist a week ago and should be ready for less than two weeks, “said an EU official.” There will be compromises made. “
Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen said loans, which will aim for seven main skills, including protection of air and missile, artillery and drones, will “help member states look for pool and buy together”, and also provide “immediate military equipment for Ukraine”.
The Polish government, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency and is tasked with chairing the block ministerial meetings, will be under pressure to draft a quick agreement. The initiative can be approved by most 27 EU countries, but the French acquisition is seen as essential even if the country can be overcome-as the Edif precedent.
“We are in a phase where this simply has to be ranked in the name of speed, not perfection,” said an EU diplomat involved in negotiations. “But if there was a reluctance to get € 1.5 billion past French opposition, how is it expected to make € 150 billion?”
The Commission refused to comment.
