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EU Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius said Europe’s defense industry is fragmented and needs a “single market” to remove bureaucratic barriers and expand production more quickly.
Speaking at the European Industrial Forum in Brussels, Kubilius said the problems facing Europe’s defense sector are linked to EU legal arrangements and the way defense powers remain largely in the hands of national authorities.
He said the EU treaties give responsibility for defense policy to national governments, leaving the bloc’s 27 member states with different defense budgets and policies.
Kubilius said Europe’s defense industry is not growing fast enough because of the absence of a single market and the presence of bureaucratic obstacles.
He argued that the U.S. would be weaker if, instead of having a federal budget and defense policy, its 50 states each had different arrangements in those areas.
Kubilius said similar fragmentation in Europe prevents the defense industry from scaling up at the speed required.
He pointed to the Lisbon Treaty, which allows member states to exempt defense procurement from competition rules in order to protect national security interests.
Kubilius said this exception has prevented the creation of a single market in defense and left newly established companies without enough room to grow.
Kubilius also referred to ideas for creating a “European Defense Union” and a “European Security Council.”
He said the EU was founded in peacetime and argued that the bloc now needs to ask whether its foreign and security policy, institutions and decision-making processes are suitable for today’s challenges.
The idea of a European Security Council was intended to create a structure within the EU that could make faster and more effective decisions on defense and security issues with a limited number of countries.
The proposal emerged as a possible answer to slow EU decision-making mechanisms that require unanimity.
However, it has not been implemented because member states could not reach an agreement on power-sharing and representation.
Kubilius also warned that Europe’s defense industry production is not expanding at the desired pace and said Russia has overtaken the continent in this field.
“I think this gap in Russia’s production capacity is really very threatening,” he said.
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