Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In what is seen as a massive step towards the creation of a standing EU army, the European Commission has stated it will now spend €1.5 billion a year on joint defence spending. This will be financed from the annual EU budget. It is the first time that money from the EU's budget will be directly used to buy military equipment and on joint defence capabilities.

People are aware of the need to improve domestic security considering the recent attacks in Paris, London and Manchester, but the creation of this external force is an extra financial burden and is not needed. The EU says it has no spare money for positive social and economic programmes such as youth unemployment projects, community regeneration, improving public services like health care, but it has €1.5 billion a year to spend on regressive military projects, especially considering the same budget will have a €10 billion hole in it when Britain leaves the Union.

I want to see Irish taxpayers' money being spent on health care services, on ending the trolley crisis, on making education more accessible, or on creating good quality jobs in urban and rural areas and on housing and not spent on weapons and creating a standing EU army.

This is a political decision. It comes at a time when NATO bosses fear the USA's long-term commitment to the alliance and at a time when Britain is to leave the EU. NATO is a Cold War relic that should be disbanded.

The original declaration on this huge annual spend stated that it was for research and development of military products in member states and to facilitate the buying of new military technologies. However, the Commission and the European External Action Service added in a Reflection Paper on the Future of European Defence, launched on Wednesday, 7 June, that the fund could in future form part of the bloc's "common defence and security". They said that member states' defence forces could one day "be pre-positioned and be made permanently available for rapid deployment on behalf of the Union". In simple terms, this is clearly the establishment of a standing EU army. The paper also said that "the EU would provide the framework within which the 27 member states after Brexit - 21 of which are NATO allies - would collectively strengthen their defence and address existing shortfalls", whatever that means.

The aim is clearly to develop an aggressive EU army, able to intervene militarily and conduct war supposedly independent of NATO and the USA. Yet we have not heard one word of concern, unease or criticism from the supposedly neutral Irish Government.

Any EU policy which aims to increase EU militarisation is a potential danger to Irish neutrality. It is particularly worrying that an EU defence policy would be also designed to be complementary to NATO. Ireland's membership of this will in effect be NATO membership through the side door.

The creation of a permanent EU force available for deployment on EU missions, as imagined by the Commission, would also make it impossible for any EU member state to maintain a policy of neutrality. What is the Minister of State doing to oppose these plans and to protect Irish neutrality? He is signing off on this while a large proportion of the members of our Defence Forces are reliant on lousy wages, on social welfare top-ups and substandard accommodation. Many cannot even afford the petrol costs to drive to work. Yet the €1.5 billion can be found, no problem, for supposedly weapons development and a standing EU army.

Minister of State at the Department of Defence (Deputy Paul Kehoe):I thank the Deputy for raising this matter.

The College of Commissioners adopted the European Defence Action Plan on 30 November last. The aim of the plan is to explore how EU policies and instruments can ensure that the EU’s industrial and skills base will be able to deliver required defence capabilities in view of current and future security challenges. As part of this plan, the Commission issued a communication on 7 June proposing the establishment of a European defence fund. The purpose of the fund is to promote research and innovation and contribute to the strengthening of the European defence technology and industrial base, and to further stimulate the development of key defence capabilities for the Common Security and Defence Policy, CSDP.

For many countries the defence industry is a significant element of their economy and a significant employer. As the Commission moves to apply Single Market principles to the defence industry sector, access to Commission instruments in support of consolidation and increased efficiencies in the sector, including EU research and development funds, come into play.

The focus of the plan is not specific to the arms industry but focuses on the development of new research and technology in the defence sector in its widest sense. This includes the application of commercial and civilian technologies within the defence sector.

The fund will co-ordinate, supplement and amplify national investments in defence. By pooling resources, it is proposed that individual member states can achieve greater output and develop defence technology and equipment that may not be feasible on their own. The fund will also foster innovation and allow economies of scale which will reinforce the competitiveness of the EU defence industry.

To achieve this, the fund has two strands, or windows, which are complementary and are being gradually deployed, a research window and a capability window which will focus on the development and acquisition of capabilities. In the research window, it is proposed that the EU will offer direct funding grants for research in innovative defence products and technologies, fully financed from the EU budget. The capability window deals with development and acquisition. Member states will pool financial contributions to jointly develop and acquire key defence capabilities. The EU proposes to offer co-financing from the EU budget on the development phase through the proposed European defence industrial development programme.

The EU also proposes to support member states’ collaborative efforts in helping them deploy the most suitable financial arrangements for joint acquisition with a view to incentivise cooperation and leverage national financing.

Until 2020, the Commission is proposing to allocate €590 million to the European defence fund. As of 2020, the Commission is proposing to allocate at the minimum €1.5 billion per year. The fund is not designed to substitute member states’ defence investments, but to enable and accelerate their co-operation. The proposals presented by the Commission are the first step in a long process of negotiation that will take place with the involvement of the member states. These proposals will be discussed at a number of EU working bodies and will require EU Council and Parliament approval before the defence fund can be adopted.

As part of these negotiations, member states will have differing views on the fund and also to the potential impact on the content and nature of EU research and innovation programmes, in particular in relation to the successor to the Horizon 2020 research programme. Moreover the funding proposed will have to be dealt with in the context of the negotiations for the multi-annual financial framework post-2020.

The proposals under the defence fund will fully respect the EU treaties and the Lisbon treaty protocols and they pose no challenge to Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality. The voluntary nature of participation in the proposed fund is very much a feature of this initiative and fully acknowledges and reaffirms that defence remains a member state prerogative. Decisions about expenditure, military capabilities, research and technology are and remain matters for individual member states in the first instance. Ireland would be in full control in relation to what type of project it wanted to participate in and with whom. The proposals for the establishment of a defence fund raises no issues in relation to Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality.

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