Paris, 22 June, 2006 – the WEU Assembly on Wednesday called for European countries to cooperate to a greater extent on security and defence research and technological development (RTD) programmes in order to avoid “unnecessary duplication and dispersal of budgetary resources”.

Presenting a report on “Security and research in Europe – reply to the annual report of the Council” on behalf of the Technological and Aerospace Committee, José Mendes Bota welcomed the efforts made by European institutions in this area and in particular, the progress represented by “the inclusion of security and space issues” in the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FPRD) (2007-2013).

By investing in this area, the Commission will need to cooperate with the European Defence Agency (EDA), set up in 2005 but which still has a limited role “since its research and technology budget is 100 times less than that envisaged by the Commission for security”. Mr Mendes Bota added that the EDA ran on goodwill, with a handful of staff and a tiny budget. He called for member states to take action in this area. The report noted with regret that the commitments made by European Union member states to increase the share of European GDP allocated to RTD to 3% per annum had “not yet been honoured”.

The Rapporteur said that if European security and defence RTD was to be capable of meeting objectives, Europe needed to increase funding, make programmes more coherent and develop synergy between civilian and military research. He drew attention to the limited cooperation between member states and lack of coordination between national and European efforts.

Mr Mendes Bota reminded members that only six of the 25 EU member states provided 90% of defence RTD investment and that in the civilian RTD and industrial sector, out of a total of 700 European companies, firms from just three countries accounted for 75% of RTD investment. He stressed that those countries did not form a coordinated and harmonious block, but were intent on protecting their national interests. He hoped that in the future, the European Defence Agency would have a more important role in resolving such problems.