Ireland’s “increased interest” in European defence cooperation has been welcomed in the context of falling overall military expenditure.
Jan Pie, head of the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe warned that the region's "fragmented" approach to military development could no longer sustain its competitiveness in the context of rising expenditure by China and others.
"I would like to congratulate Ireland for the increased interest on the defence side towards the EU and the EDF (European Defence Fund)," he told a Department of Defence-hosted webinar on Thursday aimed at linking Irish small and medium enterprise (SMEs) with European funding opportunities in the sector.
“I think this is a very welcome move not just from an Irish perspective but certainly from an overall European industry perspective and from an EU competitiveness perspective as well.”
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Mr Pie said increasing European investment was crucial in order to maintain competition on a global stage in which Asia-Pacific GDP growth is on course to outstrip that of Europe and the US by 2050.
“Failure of the EDF is simply not an option; we need to be fully engaged, all of us, on making the EDF a success story,” he said.
Data from the Economist Intelligence Unit shows that in 1990 Europe and the Americas accounted for about 75 per cent of global GDP growth, but this is on course to shrink to 45 per cent by 2050. Mr Pie said that in terms of global military expenditure, it would not be a surprise if China eventually matched the US.
“The long terms trend in Europe [from 1960 to 2020] has been declining for decades,” he said, adding that investment has begun to increase again.
“The collaborative defence equipment [investment] is extremely low…the sickness of the European system is the fragmentation and this is what needs to be addressed.”
Turnover
In 2019, European defence industry turnover amounted to €259 billion with 892,000 direct jobs, the conference heard.
Pat O’Connor of the recently formed Irish Defence & Security Association (IDSA) said that in the same year, the domestic industry exported €2.4 billion in dual use products - those with military and civilian applications - about the same as the beef sector.
He said there are currently 548 foreign and domestic firms active in the Irish market with between €1.5 and €2 billion in estimated capital expenditure forecast for the next nine years.
“The fact that Ireland has under invested in defence for so long means that we now have an opportunity to develop capability focused on these new disruptive technologies,” he said.
“As we know Ireland will contribute approximately €150 million over the next six years to this [European Defence] Fund. We need to make sure that Ireland has the right policies and supports in place to ensure that Ireland gets a return on that investment at least equal to that.”
The Minister for Defence Simon Coveney said the EDF would help EU member states better coordinate and supplement national investment in defence and develop technology and equipment "that may not otherwise be feasible".
“It is essential to understand that the EDF is about a wide range of technology research and development that goes well beyond the type of traditional defence industry sectors which, while present in many other member States, are not a reality in Ireland,” he said.
However, Thursday’s webinar, which had been intended as an in-person networking event, also attracted critics given the nature of the investment.
Joe Murray, co-ordinator of the peace charity Afri, described it as an attempt to militarise Ireland's industrial policy.
"[It] is a very sad day and a very troubling event," he said. "The purpose of it is to introduce industry in Ireland to the European Defence Agency and to provide them with information about funding that's available to develop weapons systems."
