Europe’s Defense Industry Confusion

TEHRAN (Defapress) - The EU has allocated billions of euros to strengthen its defense industries, but coordination between member states and weapons production is not moving fast enough. Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, recently expressed disappointment with the pace of weapons production. This criticism comes as the share values ​​of major European defense companies have fallen.

It has been about a year since the launch of a historic program to strengthen Europe’s military capabilities; the initial prerequisite for this program is the attraction of 800 billion euros of capital through various mechanisms. Instruments such as the “SAFE Program” (to finance joint arms purchases among member states) have been activated, and investments are underway. But experts say money alone is not enough and must be accompanied by a clear roadmap and political will.

Nicolás Pascual de la Parte, from the centre-right People's Party, and Javi López, from the left-wing Socialist Party, are two MEPs who, despite the tense political climate between them in Madrid, are in Brussels and share views on defence issues.

Pascual de la Parte defends Europe's defence industry, saying: "Industry moves faster than governments. Private companies react to profits, and there is a lot of money on the table." The main problem is the lack of coordination between countries' arms procurement processes. Each country builds its own national capabilities, but does not integrate them into a common industrial and technological base.

Javi López, who is more aligned with Kaya Callas, says: "With all this money, production has not increased as much as expected. The main question is why?" He also emphasizes the problem of fragmentation and lack of coordination, saying: "Just throwing money on the table does not increase the scale of production."

Pasquale de la Parte points to the AMEN program, which provides countries with very low-interest loans with a grace period of up to ten years. Poland has requested a loan of 43 billion euros through this program, but the problem is that this money is spent on strengthening Poland's national capabilities, not on joint European projects.

De la Parte emphasizes that the AMEN program aims to finance joint European programs to create European capabilities.

He says: "It is difficult to change the mindset of member states to create joint capabilities instead of national capabilities."

Both MEPs emphasize the need to change the approach from "national dynamism" to "European dynamism" in creating supply chains and military capabilities. “The European defense industry was underfunded and needed more money,” says Javi López, “but it is not just the money that is important, but also the way it is invested to reduce dependencies.”

Both representatives directly point to France and “French sovereignty” as a major obstacle to this coordination, and cite the FCES (New Generation European Fighter) project as an example of what should not be done.

The EU has earmarked significant financial resources to become an independent defense power and reduce its dependence on the United States. But the main problem goes beyond funding; member states have not yet been able to overcome their national differences and develop a common and coordinated defense strategy. Until this coordination is achieved, even billions of euros will not be able to transform Europe into a unified military power.