I am very grateful for this opportunity to meet representatives from Europe’s defence land systems manufacturers. It is not my intention to make a long speech. Many of my colleagues are already here amongst you and will be talking to you throughout the week. My main aim is to meet you and listen to what you have to say. Please excuse me for being brief and for limiting myself to a few comments.

Since 2003, Europe has made significant progress in the development of its crisis-prevention and -management tools. More than a score of civil and military operations have been mounted since 2003 over three continents. About 10,000 personnel have been deployed operationally this year, from Chad to Kosovo, the Middle East to Afghanistan. This is a substantial total.

Is this satisfactory? Yes. Is it adequate? No.

How can we best shape current developments? How can we best address the threats? Quite simply, by acquiring the necessary capabilities. The world is changing, and it is doing so rapidly. New possibilities are emerging, but these bring with them their quota of crises and complex threats. The European Security Strategy adopted in 2003 could be summarised in just a few words: to contain crises that we have allowed to get out of hand and to avert at source external threats that could have a direct impact on our internal security.

On the initiative of France’s EU presidency, this document will be reviewed this year in the light of the changes that have occurred over the past five years. It will be on this basis that Europe will be able to identify the military and civilian resources required to best address the threats to its security. This week, I will be passing my initial recommendations to the Heads of State and Government of the 27.

You will not be surprised to hear one of my very first recommendations: there can be no credible ESDP without available and appropriate military capabilities, and without a European industrial and technological base that is autonomous, soundly based and competitive. If it were not for you, ladies and gentlemen, there would be no equipment market, no defence base, no capability, and hence no crisis-management operations. It is of course self-evident to everyone here that the defence industry plays a determining role in the equipment of the armed forces that support the ESDP.

The development of a true European defence market is of course also crucial, as are a rationalised European industry and a competitive European market; we must work together to achieve these targets. The EU’s military capabilities are first and foremost those of its member states. But everyone—national governments, European and industrial institutions—has a role to play. It is up to us all, with goodwill, to jointly identify limitations, to set priorities, to define requirements and to commit the funding that these demand, from research through to the fielding of the developed capabilities. 

I am pleased to note that it is this spirit of cooperation that now prevails. The common deficiencies observed by the EU and by NATO demonstrate that we have no other options. This is also the motivation behind the latest Anglo-French initiative on helicopters. It is only by acting in a spirit of synergy that we will make progress down the three paths outlined in the French White Paper on defence and security: the joint definition of European military requirements; the development of the activities of the European Defence Agency; the introduction of common rules for the defence equipment market.

Europe is not one of a range of options. It is the sole framework that is capable of responding to our political and strategic ambitions. Quite simply we have no other choice but Europe. And together we can make it work.♦