In order to avoid becoming overly dependent on defense systems acquired outside of Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron urged France's EU partners to consider a more domestic air defense policy on Monday. This was done to highlight the significance of European independence.
“When we talk about air defense, we would be wrong to rush into [increasing] capacity,” Macron said at a news conference in Paris after meeting with defense ministers and other representatives of 20 European countries.
“The question is, first of all, strategic. It consists of knowing the state of the threats, what we can realistically defend, and which strategy we want to pursue,” he continued. “And then, what we, as Europeans, have the capacity to produce and what we must then buy. Because if we have an approach based solely on capacity, we would right away buy what’s available even if it’s not useful—and that generally means buying massive amounts of non-European products.”
In conjunction with the Paris Air Show, the biggest aviation exhibition in the world with an emphasis on the space sector and air defense, Macron met with ministers for a full day.
Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Ukraine's neighbors Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania were among the nations who attended the summit. Additionally present were representatives from the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Macron urged for EU defense equipment producers to develop their own military systems and move their manufacturing there. He also demanded that European standards be raised.
“Why do we still need to buy American too often? Because Americans have standardized much more than we have, and they themselves have federal agencies that provide massive subsidies to their manufacturers,” he said.
Following Germany's agreement to jointly acquire air defense systems that come in part from the United States and Israel, Macron made a step that emphasizes EU sovereignty.
The "European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI)" is a concept launched by Germany that unites 17 EU nations as well as the United Kingdom. A NATO statement describes the program as a "flexible and scalable way for nations to strengthen their deterrence and defence in an efficient and cost-effective way," allowing all members to cooperatively build air and missile defense systems utilizing a multinational and multifunctional approach.
The German idea has received explicit criticism from the French administration because, in France's opinion, it does not uphold EU sovereignty. The ESSI is anticipated to primarily showcase American and Israeli military businesses, including the already-existing U.S. and Israel's Arrow 3 system. systems for Patriot missiles.
Merkel is "not convinced" by Macron's plan for Europe's air defense capabilities, according to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who was also present at the meeting in Paris on Tuesday. He made these remarks the day after Macron declared that five European nations—France, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, and Hungary—had signed a letter of intent to jointly acquire France's Mistral infrared homing short-range air defense system.
“Macron’s conception seems to be: ‘We are not in such a hurry that we need to build on bridge technologies and we can wait until what we develop in Europe is ready.’ We, along with several others, are not convinced about that,” Pistorius said.
“We won’t move away from that deal and we don’t buy anything because of tradition or history. We buy that system because it’s just very good and the best thing I know,” he continued. “We will stay with it. How long? I can’t give you guarantees for the next two decades, but anyway, as long as we are responsible—and that means the next [few] years—we will stay with Arrow because it’s very good.”
At a press conference held on Tuesday at Germany's Jagel Air Base, Pistorius and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed their agreement that EU nations ought to be free to choose their own air defense system purchases.
“It’s a national decision by each and every ally exactly what kind of system they decide to invest in. So that’s a German decision,” he said. “But what we do at NATO is that we agree to capability targets. So we have agreed that allies need to invest more in air defense, and therefore I welcome the German initiative.”
Defense expenditure has long been a point of dispute between the two nations, with France accusing Germany of not doing enough in this regard for years until the conflict in Ukraine prompted Berlin to declare a significant increase in military spending.
Macron has already urged France's EU partners to think carefully before purchasing military hardware made outside of Europe. He has pushed EU nations to move toward establishing their own strategic autonomy on a number of occasions in recent months in lieu of depending on the US through NATO.
The transfer of the system to Kyiv was confirmed by Paris and Rome in February, and Macron stated on Monday that it is "now deployed and operational in Ukraine." The NATO integrated air and missile defense system includes the MAMBA system.
