The Development of a European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB)

In 2007 the EU member states inaugurated a European Defence Technological and Industrial Base strategy. The gradual integration of national DTIB should lead to selfsufficiency for security of supply – but on a European rather than national level. A better co-ordinated, less duplicative defence landscape was to emerge, to better serve the political objectives of European defence. Six years on, with the European Council on defence scheduled for later this year, this is the right time to define where EDTIB stands today and what added value can EU institutions offer to sustain and develop it. The current state and the long-term trend of the defence policies and industrial activities make the materialisation of the current vision of the EDTIB increasingly improbable. The joint political vision has lost contact with the individual political and industrial reality of the growing export orientation of European suppliers. In addition, security of supply depends ever more on the influx of civilian and defence goods as well as raw materials from beyond Europe’s borders. The EDTIB is trapped between the national and global developments. New solutions have to be added to the already existing recommendations. A key step would be a revision of the 2007 EDTIB Strategy.