MOVES ARE gathering pace to set up a central European procurement agency. Senior UK and German defence officials met on 9 March in London to discuss a coordinated approach to the establishment of a joint-procurement policy.
Roger Freeman, the UK defence procurement minister, met his German counterpart, Jorg Schonbohm, with the agenda dominated by the issue of joint procurement.
The UK minister advocates placing a European procurement agency within the domain of the Western European Union.
Such an agency would act as a coordinating house for harmonising national requirements. Unlike present Government-led work-share arrangements, however, Freeman would like to see this devolved to an industrial decision-making level.
Alongside talks on how to establish such a structure, Freeman and Schonbohm are also understood to have discussed the four-nation Eurofighter 2000 and Future Large Aircraft programmes.
Source: Flight International