As part of the wider Pooling and Sharing Initiative, Pooling and Consolidating Demand was examined yesterday at a high-level seminar in Brussels. Under discussion was an important tool in addressing the challenges of restricted defence budgets: combining purchases for reduced costs. The initiative has received support from across the defence spectrum, including defence and security industry.
The Cyprus EU Council Presidency, in association with the European Defence Agency and the Egmont - Royal Institute for International Relations of Belgium, has organised a seminar entitled: "Innovative European Defence Cooperation - Pooling and Consolidating Demand." Drawing together representatives from Ministries of Defence, the European Commission, industry and media, the event permitted an in-depth discussion of some pressing issues. It featured contributions from leading figures in EU defence: speakers included Demetris Eliades, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus, General Håkan Syrén, Chairman of the EU Military Committee, Detlef Selhausen, German National Armaments Director, Antti Peltomäki, Deputy Director-General of DG Enterprise and Frank Haun, Chief Executive Officer of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, as well as Claude-France Arnould, the EDA's Chief Executive.
Reductions in EU defence budgets have given extra importance to the need for co-operation in Pooling and Sharing at a European level. At the seminar, delegates further examined the benefits and impacts of consolidating demand on EU governments and industries; the opportunities and challenges this creates, both in the short and in the long term; and in general, further means, methods and ways of improving the effectiveness of military expenditure within the EU.
Giving a keynote address, General Håkan Syrén outlined many of the challenges, and called for deeper cooperation. He said “The recent budget cuts have further exacerbated the situation and made a difficult situation worse. A good thing is that they have increased the visibility and awareness of the problems, but let me underline that the fundamental problems are that defence is getting increasingly costly, that our efforts are spread too thinly to be really efficient and most important that our decisions are taken in 27 different national contexts. The potential for generating a greater capability output is substantial if we are able to coordinate our efforts better.”
Central to the progress in Pooling Demand has been the EDA’s own project, Effective Procurement Methods. Having overcome the legal and bureaucratic obstacles to this initiative, the Agency has now successfully completed two pilot projects, one on training, covering instructors’ services and expertise for the European Guardian, a Counter-IED exercise held in Austria this summer, and another one on Basic Logistics Services for the EU Battle Group for three Member States: Austria, Czech Republic and Germany.
Frank Haun, the Chief Executive Officer of German firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, in an EDA interview before the event, offered this call in support of the project: “In times of declining budgets and the massive re-allocation of financial resources, all partners in the defence market need to rethink and discuss objectives, structures, and processes.” He concluded that “it finally comes down to economies of scale.”
The EDA’s Chief Executive, Claude-France Arnould, said at the end of the seminar: “I am very happy with today’s outcome. One could feel that all stakeholders are ready to translate our political commitment to Pooling & Sharing into real and tangible action. Pooling and Consolidating Demand is a key tool to make this happen and the EDA with its integrated way of working is just the natural place for it.”
The Pooling Demand seminar forms part of the defence programme of Cyprus’ presidency of the European Council. More information on the Cypriot presidency is available at their dedicated website. Their press release about the seminar is available here.
