European defence industry: Commission welcomes political agreement on support for common procurement between Member States
The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached yesterday between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the Regulation on establishing the instrument for the reinforcement of the European defence industry through common procurement (EDIRPA) with a budget of €300 million.
EDIRPA will incentivise Member States to commonly procure the most critical and urgent defence products in light of Russia's unjustified invasion of Ukraine. It will strengthen interoperability among Member States for the same products, facilitate cost savings and boost the competitiveness and efficiency of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. Common procurement by Member States is a major step forward towards a more integrated European defence market, offering increased predictability to the European defence industry, allowing it to invest to ramp up its production capacity and to adapt to the current market context.
EDIRPA will support Member States in their endeavour to spend at least 35% of their equipment budget in European collaborative programmes. It will counter the fragmentation of European demand which harms the competitiveness of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base.
In complement to EDIRPA, the co-legislators are also working towards finalising the negotiations around the Act in Support of Ammunition Production to support more directly the industrial capacity to produce ammunition for Ukraine and EU Member States, as part of the three pillar ammunition strategy agreed between EU leaders.
When adopting the Strategic Compass, Member States committed to spend more and better in defence to better address operational realities and new threats and challenge. By encouraging collaborative procurement, EDIRPA and the upcoming ASAP will support this step change in Member States behaviour.
Next Steps
The political agreement reached by the European Parliament, Council and Commission is now subject to formal approval by the European Parliament and the Council. The Commission aims at implementing EDIRPA swiftly. The Commission will prepare a work programme assisted by Member States in the Programme Committee.
Background
In response to the Versailles Summit of March 2022, the Commission and High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell presented on 18 May a Joint Communication of the EU defence investment gaps and proposed actions how to address them.
Three dimensions of the gap were identified. A budgetary one – Member States under-invested in defence over the last two decades; a capability one – our armed forces lack some critical enablers, and an industrial one – our EU manufacturing capacities for defence equipment are tailored for peace time.
To help addressing these challenges, the Commission, together with the European External Action Service and the European Defence Agency put in place a Defence Joint Procurement Task Force to assess the most pressing needs from Member States and the EU defence industry's ability to address them.
On 19 July 2022 Commission presented the European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Regulation (EDIRPA), aiming at reinforcing defence industrial capabilities by supporting Member States cooperation on common procurement of the most urgent and critical defence products.