Published
Update
Video length: 11 min
“Defense must be the responsibility of States”, believes Thierry Breton
Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, was the guest of franceinfo on March 4, 2023.
(FRANCEINFO)
“Defense will remain a prerogative of the States,” he assured Monday on franceinfo.
“We must increase our industrial base together.” The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, presented the European defense strategy plan to create a single catalog of weapons that Europeans can supply. “We need to move into war economy mode for the defense industry, to be able to provide Ukraine with what it needs and for our own security”he declared on franceinfo Monday March 4.
>> Find the latest information on the war in Ukraine in our live stream
This plan should make it possible to “create a background […] in reserve, upstream, to create stocks [d’armes] in time of need”. Thierry Breton wants, by 2030, that “40% of purchases [d’armement] be done mutually”, by member countries. Defense will remain a prerogative of the States, assures Thierry Breton, but the goal is to “work together […] and pool production capacities. It’s a necessity to organize together.” in times of crisis.
To begin with, the plan will be financed to the tune of 1.5 billion euros. Then, for the next five years, Thierry Breton figures it “a hundred billion”. He does not rule out using Russian assets, frozen in Europe, to finance it. The strategy will be built around two pillars: “increase the capacity of the defense industry and provide weapons to Ukraine. The second, defend our contested spaces such as maritime, space or cyber.”
