Industry slams plans for defence spending reductions
European Union security research risks being reduced to an irrelevance if further funding cuts are approved by national governments, defence manufacturers have warned.
The European Parliament voted last week to reduce funding for the third and final year of preliminary research into areas including surface-to-air missile countermeasures for civilian airliners (Flight International, 9-15 August), in a move that industry fears could set a precedent for funding of the wider seventh research framework programme (FP7).
The EU Preparatory Action for Security Research (PASR) process was seen by many within the defence community as a first step towards co-ordinated homeland defence research across Europe. However, parliament voted to reduce the European Commission’s allocated budget of €24 million ($29 million) to €15 million.
The Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) slammed the cut, with outgoing secretary general Roger Hawksworth saying: “To fulfil the PASR security priorities that the Commission, together with member states, has mapped out, the preparatory action has to be properly funded.”
Members of the European Parliament are understood to have rejected the original funding proposal because preparatory actions are usually ad hoc payments of around €1 million, with some accusing the EC of trying to sneak through defence spending, which is illegal under EU rules. The ASD is concerned that funding for larger projects within FP7 will also be cut during ongoing EU budgetary talks.
The EC originally estimated a minimum annual funding level of €1 billion in the field of security research in a 2003 study. The EC’s enterprise directorate general was given responsibility for drawing up security research programmes, combining security and space research under an annual request of €500 million. But an assumed €250 million allocation will represent just 25% of earlier EC “worst-case scenario funding”, says a senior ASD source.
Concerns that EU budget haggling from late this year could reduce all areas of FP7 spending by a further 25% would leave security research at €175 million and reduce projects to an “irrelevant” level, the source says.
- Former Thales senior vice-president for marketing and sales, corporate, François Gayet was appointed ASD secretary general on 1 November.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE/BRUSSELS
Source: Flight International
