Verheugen: Planned defence research will be ringfenced

Commissioner Günter Verheugen declared
himself optimistic as to the possibility of creating the
right conditions for the European Defence industry.
He advocated exploiting the 'dual use' possibilities between
civil and defence industry, which is now "the rule". He also
underlined the strong committment in the Commission to secure
proposed defence research spending, and he further said that
he had 'ringfenced' it before the upcoming budget talks in an
agreement with research commissioner Janez Potocnik.

"Like it or not, EU is about to become a global player. And not
in the same sense as the US. We still miss a clear sense of what it
will mean. EU needs a better public debate, until now it has
been of poor quality," said Verheugen, stating a need for
the EU's soft power capacity to also become a 'robust power'
in peacekeeping. 

Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution
and former White House advisor on Homeland
Security, Richard Falkenrath, pointed to what
he called an "asymmetry of effort" between the US and Europe in
measures to prevent terrorism which leaves Europe at risk of
attracting terrorist attacks because it will be seen as the
easier target. 

Falkenrath further stated that a major reorganisation of
security structures in the EU after the 11 September attacks
was still needed. "The wall between intelligence and law
enforcement communities has not been torn down," he said, claiming
that  Spanish police were not given all relevant available
information from the country's intelligence services prior to the
11 March bombings.  Falkenrath also called for the
EU not to spend millions of euros on new defence research, but
rather to "go for the low hanging fruit that
is around".   

Jorge Bento Silva, Principal Administrator of
the Commission's Directorate General for
Justice, Freedom and Security  countered
Falkenrath's last allegation by saying that the EU indeed had
specific security research needs of its own. The EU
would thus be interested in developing existing
Swiss technology to identify the exact origins of an
explosive. This is something that US is not interested in
developing for fear of litigation against the producers of
explosives, according to Silva. 

He said that the EU's present objective was "not a
policy to provide gadgets, but rather an identification of crucial
needs. Standardisation rather than regulation is the approach we
need".

He further predicted that the world's security needs will not go
away, and in this Silva saw an opportunity for Europe to develop a
competitive edge in defence technology as it has managed to
do in the field of environmental technology and energy
saving.

Victor Aguado, CEO of Eurocontrol, which among
other issues manages European civil and military
airspace,  advocated the need
to leverage and share existing information sources
to bolster security:"We can get a lot of security from
interfacing the systems that are already a hand. We need
sharing between NATO, EU, Europol and Eurocontrol. A lot of
information already exists. Some security needs will require new
technology, others will not," he said.

Diego Ruiz Palmer,head of planning
section of crisis management at NATO,
spoke of the need for "leaner" organisational structures, and the
need for a difficult change towards a new mental
mindset with 'around the clock crisis preparedness'.

Markus Hellenthal, Senior Vice President of
homeland security, 
EADS,
underlined that the new
threats were marked by their unpredictability, and he found
that the current preparedness with respect to most security
organisations was characterised by several important
shortcomings: 
"Fragmentation on all regional, national and international
capacities and undersized or inexistent coordination means.
Information overkill caused by outdated IT capabilities and stand
alone systems, which are lacking modern and real time intelligence
exchange capabilities as well as decision support systems. Limited
national budgets either for capacity enhancement or for future
technologies development." 
Hellenthal argued that R&D for new technologies is key for the
fight against the evolving threats. Priority should be given by EU
to the creation of inter-operable systems as a basis for seamless
and real time collaboration across security organisation boundaries
and national borders, he said. 

James Moseman, Director of Europe and
NATO, at the defence company Northrop
Grumman, said that a host of
technologies ranging from surveillance, command and control to
scanning and detecting and information technologies were available
or being developed. But pointed to a lack of coordination of
requirements to defence equipment and an
unfortunate "proliferation of standards and a political
dimension to procurement that may inhibit real competition".
Moseman predicted that lack of common standards and an open market
will lead to a scenario where "security products will come later,
be less capable and will cost more".  

The awareness of European security needs have been boosted by
both the Madrid terrorist attack on 11th of March 2004 and by the
maturing ambitions of European leaders to play a greater role
as a soft power on the global scene. 

The policy discussions now centre around the question of how to
provide the means to reach the goals. The
challenge lies in providing the financial means for
adequate research and new equipment, while at the same time sorting
out how best to use and reorganise the appropriate means
and resources that are already at
hand.          

EU official documents

• Kommission:Sicherheitsforschung: Die nächsten Schritte(7. Septemer 2004)
• Kommission:Research for a Secure Europe(15. März 2004)
• CouncilA secure Europe in a better world - The European security Strategy (Solana)
• CommissionSecurity Research: Commission prepares for the unexpected7 February 2005
• Rat:European Defence Agency
• Eurocontrol:Civil-Military Co-operation in Air Traffic Management
• Kommission, Pressemitteilung:'Führende Vertreter der europäischen Industrie und EU-Politiker fordern Aufstockung der Finanzmittel für Sicherheitsforschung'(15. März 2004)

NGOs and Think-Tanks

• The Brookings Institution:Defense
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS):URGENT HOMELAND SECURITY OVERSIGHT REFORM NEEDED
• New Defence Agenda:NDA