Germany’s Perception of the EU Defence Industrial « Toolbox »

Over time, the European Union (EU) could gradually become a major player in the EDTIB, the
European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. In recent years, it has developed several
initiatives to support defence industrial cooperation between Member States and their
defence companies. For European capitals, this represents a major paradigm shift. How do
they see this new role that the EU, and the Commission in particular, are in the process of
acquiring? What is their perception of the EU’s toolbox for supporting the EDTIB?

To answer these questions, the Ares Group has decided to launch a series of seven papers
(comments) on as many European countries. In this paper, Jana Puglierin examines how
Germany principally welcomes Brussels’ efforts to boost European defence capabilities by
launching initiatives to create a resilient, competitive, and innovative EDTIB. However, she
states that the potential of the EU initiatives is seen as rather limited in Berlin and that the
German government is reluctant to invest much energy or resources to advance them. A
NATO-first approach, a missing European link of Germany’s Zeitenwende, the reluctance to
give up sovereignty and control as well as growing financial constraints all prevent Berlin from
seeing the full potential of the EU as an “enabler” of an increased European defence capability.