The European Union Charts Its Own Path for European Rearmament
The European Union has rolled out its first-ever Defense Industrial Strategy (EDIS), aiming at boosting the “competitiveness” and “readiness” of the European defense industrial and technological base (EDTIB).
While the strategy is the first document entirely dedicated to the defense industry, it is the latest of a series of strategies and agendas to both rationalize and incentivize European Union member states’ collective efforts in defense, and to raise the European Union’s profile as a credible security and defense player. These efforts, which have produced several instruments and tools, have often proven useful but not transformative for European defense.
This new, nonbinding strategy signals a leap forward in the European Union’s ambition to become “ready for war” in unpredictable times for the continent, with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and increasing doubts about the sustainability of the U.S. commitment to Europe’s security. Yet doubts remain that the strategy will result in tangible action. After all, the strategy presently comes with little funding and faces skepticism from NATO and some member states, who ultimately maintain sovereign authority over national defense and procurement decisions. For the strategy not to follow the fate of other past unfulfilled EU defense initiatives, it will need to trigger considerable follow-on action, most notably funding.
Nevertheless, as shown by the European Union’s robust response to the war in Ukraine, there might be more than meets the eye in the new strategy. And perhaps more importantly, with heightened fears over an isolationist future administration in Washington and a dysfunctional NATO, the European Union’s efforts may represent the best opportunity for Europeans to shoulder their fair share of the transatlantic security responsibilities. If implemented and funded, the strategy would result in U.S. defense companies losing some of their market share in Europe, but it would likely benefit the alliance by strengthening Europe’s defense production capacity and improving Europe’s ability to operate together.
Q1: What is in EDIS and how significant is it?
A1: The baseline of the strategy is for Europeans to spend “more, better, together and European.” As such, EU institutions are underlining that the increase in defense spending witnessed since the start of the war in Ukraine is not sufficient if it does not address structural issues of capability gaps on critical enablers, fragmentation, and dependence on non-EU providers (78 percent of purchases since February 2022, out of which 80 percent is from the United States).
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