THE EMERGING EUROPEAN DEFENCE MARKET

KORAĆ Srđan (Srđan Korać, istraživač-saradnik u Institutu za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, Beograd), srdjan@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs
BULATOVIĆ Aleksandra (Aleksandra Bulatović, istraživač-saradnik u Institutu za kriminološka i sociološka istraživanja, Beograd), abulatovic@sezampro.rs

The paper deals with prospects of the developing common EU defence procurement market and policy with a view to strengthening the defence identity of the European Union as well as to promoting its external profile and international role. Despite of the European Union’s overall GDP, the Union is not considered a serious military power. The EU processes of market integration and rationalisation have bypassed European defence industries, which are fragmented and increasingly losing ground to their American and some Far East Asian competitors. This has prompted calls for introducing the supranational defence procurement and defence industry policies. The analysis focuses on functioning of the European Defence Equipment Market via application of the EU Code of Conduct on Defence Procurement and reviews EU prospects for establishment of a single defence market from the policy, organisational and commercial perspectives. The authors conclude that in the long run, the voluntary intergovernmental defence procurement regime established between some EU members will open prospects of cutting national defence spending, fostering the global competitiveness of the defence industries of EU member states and building up a respectable military capacity to additionally support the Common Defence and Security Policy.

Keywords: defence procurement, defence industry, EU code of conduct on defence procurement, European Defence Equipment Market, European Defence Agency, European/Common Defence and Security Policy