A conference in the European Parliament addressed current intentions of the European Commission with respect to defence (materiel) cooperation.
On 6 February 2019 a roundtable conference at the European Parliament in Brussels addressed current intentions of the European Commission with respect to defence (materiel) cooperation. Several speakers discussed whether these plans are effective to reach the goal of improved cooperation, a more effective defence industry and better involvement of SMEs throughout the Union. How could negative effects of these policies be foreseen and mitigated. The conference was organised by the ECR group in the European Parliament, supported by the Sallux Foundation, the EuroDefense network and the Federation of European Defence Technology Associations (EDTA).
Our Chairman Jan Wind, who is also president of the EDTA, presented two proposals in his presentation "Financing the Future":
(1) to simplify EDF co-funding negotiations and
(2) to improve spin-off and involvement of SMEs.
The conference was very topical as the so called Trilogue between the European Commission, The European Council and the European Parliament on the European Defence Fund and connected policies is still on-going. The conference was hosted by MEP Marek Jurek.
As a result of the conference a set of recommendations to support or amend the Policies will be sent to the European Commission, the European Parliament and others.
For more information visit the EDTA page on this conference (click).
Foto: NATO (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)