Tuesday, November 5, 2024

EDIP Program: French and European defense manufacturers engage in a fierce standoff

Faced with the painful realization of its unpreparedness to wage a high-intensity war, the European Union launched the EDIP program in 2022. Its role is to stimulate the modernization and expansion of the European defense industry by supporting European defense equipment programs.

If, presented in this way, all parties obviously adhere to this initiative, in detail, it highlights radically different, and often opposing, conceptions of the role of the defense industry, and of the notion of strategic autonomy, depending on whether they are French, German or Italian.

This opposition has given rise, in recent weeks, to a fierce showdown between these two opposing conceptions, a showdown which seems to have turned in favour of Germany and the majority of European industrialists, to the detriment of European strategic autonomy and the initial ambitions of the EDIP programme, defended by France.

The European Defence Investment Programme, or EDIP programme

Created in September 2022, just a few months after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the European Defence Investment Programme, or EDIP according to the English acronym, aims to stimulate the European defence industry, with a view to achieving a higher level of autonomy, and thus increasing the collective resilience of the European Union in the face of new threats.

edip thierry breton program
European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Theierry Breton, had great ambitions for the EDIP programme. These were quickly dampened by Germany and other "frugal" countries, opposed to the use of a new form of mutualised debt to finance it.

The programme was very ambitious when it was created. Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Industrial Innovation, spoke at the time of several tens of billions of euros of investments needed to restructure the European defence industry.

However, these expectations were quickly revised downwards, with several so-called "frugal" countries, including Germany, opposing the creation of a new mutual debt fund to finance it, as in the case of the Covid crisis.

Today, EDIP has a much smaller budget of €1,5 billion, even if The European Economic and Social Committee recommends increasing this ceiling. This envelope represents, however, for European defence manufacturers, a source of significant investment, to increase and extend their infrastructures, and to stimulate their innovation and their commercial efficiency.

Strong opposition between French and European defense industries on the share of imported components for the eligibility of EDIP programs

It is in this context that, for several months, two camps have been confronting each other in a completely fierce standoff over the EDIP program. At the center of this struggle are the eligibility criteria for European support for defence investment programmes.

Rafale on tight patrol
In France, the defense industry is subordinate to the effectiveness of the armed forces and the strategic autonomy of the country.

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3 Comments

  1. The irresponsibility of foreign weapons equipment policies (Israeli, American or Korean) will only end through necessity. Let's do our own thing, it will serve us well. British, German and Polish analysts are disgusted by the crazy sums lost by their governments in these acquisitions and by the lack of control by their countries of the elements of their security. In the United Kingdom, with expenses higher than ours and US purchases, our friends have a poorly equipped army. The Germans are in an extremely degraded situation. The possibility of increasing their budget comes up against the limits of their engineering capacities. They must simultaneously put double the effort on electric cars, therefore software development and make weapons? With a hollow age group at the bottom? Let's be serious. Add to that the AFD (no migrants to compensate for non-strategic positions), a hazardous energy policy... Well... our only real brake is the cleaning up of our budget. For the rest, I think we made the right choices and we will take full advantage of them.

  2. Beyond the vision that each person may have of the European strategy and whether it is a good or a bad thing that a clearer break is taking place with the concept of a powerful Europe, it is in my opinion a profound and absolutely major disavowal of France as a founding country and partner of Germany.
    Personally, I think it's a slap in the face and an insult if we add all the negative decisions we've had to make on the anti-missile shield in particular.
    Having initially been convinced that France alone will not be able to do anything, I am forced to note that we no longer have much in common in terms of vision with our partners and neighbors who are joining forces to dismember what remains of our country.
    I am deeply disappointed and disgusted.

    • You point out our loss of real influence in Europe.
      That's right and it's been at least 20 years, even if the war in Ukraine and the "at the same time" have added a real credibility problem (which the Brits don't have, even though they're in even more of a "trouble").
      It is not the fault of the Europeans (or the Germans) if we now borrow at a higher rate than Greece, Portugal or Spain. Without Europe we would have devalued X times, would be under the tutelage of the IMF like the British in 1973. We are no longer independent. Perhaps this is why Europe, by allowing us to live on credit, is harmful.
      It is not the fault of the Euriopeans if our missile offer is not competitive against the hyper credible Israeli BITD (Retex, volume/availability, price without common measure) or our supply of armor is not against the SK. The Dutch or the Finns are "no nonsense"
      We are talking about Europe under US influence, that is true and we can perfectly regret it. Nevertheless the recent decision to ban the official presence of BITD Isr. at Eurosatory shows that we are also under influence (from Qatar, from AS, from the "Suburbs"?) Where will we be in 15 years..if you are from Eastern Europe, Greek, Serbian, or Indian, or even from Morocco it is a bad message..Another unreadable turn. Before it was clear, without hypocrisy: "you buy, it its yours"

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