"Better defence spending" needed to back up EU ’principles’
2013 07 29
By Honor Mahoney | EUObserver
Europe needs to make better use of dwindling defence budgets if it is to properly take care of military problems in its own backyard as the US orients itself towards Asia, the EU commission said Wednesday.
In an ideas paper meant to feed into an EU leaders defence summit in December, the commission noted that Washington is "rebalancing its strategic focus towards Asia" while the recent Libya war highlighted European military "shortfalls."
"We will not have the weight we need in the world without a common defence policy. To support it, we need to strengthen our defence and security sector," said EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.
"We need to be able to back up our positions of principle with security and civilian missions that can help stabilize the situation in crisis areas around the world," he added.
EU states between them have about 1.6 million soldiers and spend €194 billion annually on defence - but this strength is diluted by overlapping capacities and spending at a national level.
Spending is down from €251 billion in 2001, while defence R&D spending declined by 14 percent between 2005 and 2010, to €9bn.
The commission points out that the US spends seven times more on research and development than all 28 member states put together.
Russia and China, for their part, are expected to double their defence spending by 2015 when compared to 2011.
"We want to support the defence industry for economic reasons but also for defence reasons," said industry commissioner Antonio Tajani.
