Speaking in Parliament on 29 March 2007, Solana rejected suggestions that the EU in fact has no common foreign policy, and that the lack of firm legal basis for foreign co-operation was aggravated by 2004 enlargement, in addition to the classic political divisions of Russia-friendly EU states such as Germany, France and Italy and the pro-US, Russia-wary club of the UK, Poland and the Czech Republic.
- Regarding the proposed US anti-missile defence system, on which the United States wants to reach an agreement by the end of 2007 on deploying anti-missile defenses in eastern Europe, Solana said: "There is no decision by EU on this, the EU is not a defensive alliance, but does have external and security policy and can and should debate this subject...Any such system can affect our relations with Russia. The treaties in force allocated sovereignty over this issue to the member states, but this must be compatible with EU's general interest in security," he said, indicating he would be happy to see this discussed in the Atlantic structures. He added that "the EU is not a defensive alliance, but does have external and security policy and can and should debate this subject".
- Meanwhile, the European Defence Agency (EDA) launched a new business portal offering smaller European companies the chance to take advantage of increased cross-border sub-contracting opportunities in defence procurement on 29 March. According to EDA Chairman Nick Witney, the aim is to spur Europe's largest defence firms to use the mechanism to advertise business opportunities for subcontractors across the bloc, thus giving smaller companies more chance to compete for contracts outside their home country.
-
Of the EU's 27 member states, 22 have so far agreed to post some defence contracts on the existing bulletin board, where there are currently about 140 tenders, with a total value of approximately €7 billion ($9bn). Defence officials estimate the total size of the EU defence market at around €23.5bn per year, around half of which is already open under internal market rules. Under a code of conduct agreed by member states when they launched the original bulletin board last year, EU governments have pledged to use existing rules, that allow them to exempt defence contracts from usual cross-border competition on grounds of national security, sparingly. Of Europe's largest defence companies, 28 have already appointed co-ordinators to the tendering mechanism, which will use an internet-based bulletin board on which contracts are posted. Witney said that the new bulletin board would be launched with some 100 tender opportunities available, but could not give a total value for the amount of business on offer
