The initiative brings together more than half of the member states of the European Union. In a joint letter consulted on Monday March 18 by AFP, 14 EU countries are demanding from the European Investment Bank an increase in its financing in the European arms and defense industries. A list of signatories which notably includes France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden.
For these member states, this strengthening of the European arms sector corresponds to “the new priorities of the EU”: they note that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has “caused an increased need for ‘investments in the security and defense sector’.
This letter also echoes a proposal from the European Commission at the beginning of March. The European executive therefore wants, by 2030, “50% of military equipment” ordered by member states to be supplied by European industry, declared the Vice-President of the Commission, Margrethe Vestager.
Beyond being able to face the Russian threat, the objective is also to be less dependent on the United States, while 68% of the weapons purchased by the EU intended for Ukraine were American, according to the European Commissioner at the domestic market, Thierry Breton.
A trend that is observed independently of the context of the war in Ukraine. From 2019 to 2023, approximately 55% of cumulative arms imports from European states came from the United States, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). An increasing percentage: over the period 2014-2018, American weapons represented only 35% of cumulative imports.