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A proposed injection of EUR 150 billion into the EU defense industry has become a new flashpoint in a long -term struggle between France and Germany over the moving drive of the continent, and whether it should include countries outside the block.
Europe has undertaken to increase the threats of US President Donald Trump to end generations of American protection defense Spend dramatically and enlarge their domestic skills that have been withered since the Cold War.
Last week, the European Commission proposed to collect EUR 150 billion that are awarded to capitals to increase their military production. While the broad idea has received unanimous political support, the details are still worked out, with strong lobbying about whether the money could be spent on weapons from the block.
During an EU summit on Thursday, several guides, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said that the initiative should be open to like-minded non-EU partners. “It is very important to us that the projects that can be supported are open. . . Countries that are not part of the European Union, but work closely together, such as Great Britain, Norway, Switzerland or Turkey, ”said Scholz.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has long supported the increasing European autonomy and increasing domestic industrial production, said that “the expenditure should not be a new off-the-shelf kit that is again not European”.
For the gaps in the critical skills of Europe-a single-defense, long-distance strokes, intelligence, education and targeting-“The method is to identify the best business people and companies that we have,” he added.
He also said that every EU member state would “examine orders again to determine whether European commands could be prioritized”.
Brussels diplomats are concerned that the EUR 150 billion initiative will be derailed by the same argument that agreed to the European defense industry’s program for over a year, a 1.5 billion euros that pays out payout grants for defense. The efforts to take a standstill this winter after Paris had requested a upper limit for the share for extra-EU components and a product ban with IP protection from third countries.
Officials from the high -ranking commission, who were commissioned to develop the detailed proposal in the next 10 days, were asked to connect closely with Paris, Berlin and other capitals to ensure that they are not blocked if they are presented by the member states for approval.
“A lot of work is done in this. There was no week ago and has to be finished in less than two weeks, ”said an EU official. “It is compromised.”
The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the loans that aim to target seven important skills such as air and rocket defense, artillery and drones will “help the member states to bundle and buy demand” and also “provide immediate military equipment for Ukraine”.
The Polish government, which currently has the rotating presidency of the EU and is commissioned to chair the blocks of the block, will be under pressure to work out a quick agreement. The initiative can be approved by the majority of the 27 states of the EU, but the French buy-in is considered significantly, even if the country can be survived, as can the precedent of the Edif.
“We are in a phase in which this only has to be sorted in the name of the speed, not in perfection,” said an EU diplomat that is involved in the negotiations. “But if the RAM -RAM -1.5 billion € was not taken into account in the French objections, how are we expected 150 billion euros?”
The Commission rejected a statement.
