Assembly calls for moves towards armoured vehicle harmonisation in Europe
Paris, 3 June 2009 – The European Security and Defence Assembly agreed on Wednesday that Europe should take steps towards harmonising operational requirements and basic standards for armoured vehicles and other defence equipment, “defining measurable objectives and a precise timetable”.
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Presenting a report entitled “European armoured vehicles: current programmes” for the Technological and Aerospace Committee, Chairman and Rapporteur Axel Fischer (Germany, Federated Group) listed a number of recommendations to bolster the sector in the years ahead. Noting that current needs were being met, parliamentarians were in agreement that competition among nations and manufacturers should be promoted at the same time as cooperation.
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According to the report, cooperation in itself is not an industrial solution: “A free and balanced market could be a solution for the challenges that European defence industries face in the European and international markets. Also, no company in this sector can survive if it does not have full competence and capability to design, develop and produce an armoured vehicle”.
He noted that from the report, the Assembly gained “a broad understanding” of the range of production capability in Europe recognised by EU defence ministers in 2005 as key to land-based defence systems. Although some consolidation had been achieved in recent years, rationalisation and restructuring remained difficult, he said. Armoured vehicles were initially “a shining example of possible cooperation, but ultimately became a shining example of the kind of problems inherent in such cooperation”.
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Fellow Rapporteur Tuija Nurmi (Finland, Federated Group) said she was surprised so little progress had been made on harmonisation, since European countries were involved in the same operations and faced the same threats, such as in Afghanistan. But the fact that the price of armoured vehicles had doubled in seven years could “be a key factor in promoting cooperation”.
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Claire Curtis-Thomas (United Kingdom, Socialist Group) noted that “Europe leads the world” in armoured vehicles and produces “some of the best types available”. Commenting on the report’s recommendation for a common European policy on offsets or equipment purchases conditional upon investment in the purchaser country, she said reciprocity might be useful to emerging countries, but should be ruled out for technologically "mature" nations.
