European defence research and technology expenditure too low, says EDA
Europe spent just 1.25 per cent of its collective €180 billion defence expenditure on research and technology (R&T) in 2005, according to new data released by the European Defence Agency (EDA). And while the global budget for R&T of its 24 Member States is expected to increase in 2006, the Agency warns that is clearly not enough to sustain Europe's future technological and industrial base. In 2005, the Agency's participating Member States (pMS) spent collectively a total of €2.1 billion on defence R&T. It is estimated that this figure will grow to €2.3 billion in 2006, an increase of 5.3 per cent compared with 2005. National defence R&T programmes are certainly given priority within the Agency's Member States. Only 10.2 per cent of the total defence R&T figure in 2005 was spent collaboratively, in conjunction with at least one other country. This is expected to rise slightly to 12.3 per cent in 2006. European programmes, namely collaborative initiatives involving at least two EU Member States, accounted for between eight and 8.8 per cent of the total defence R&T expenditure 2005. The Agency estimates that this will increase to between nine and 10.8 per cent in 2006. This is the first set of figures to be released by the EDA, which was established under a Joint Action of the Council of Ministers in 2004, 'to support the Member States and the Council in their effort to improve European defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the European Security and Defence Policy as it stands now and develops in the future. As part of its tasks, the Agency seeks to promote European defence-relevant R&T and support the collaborative use of national defence R&T funds, in a European policy context. It is too early to compare these European figures to US expenditure in defence research, said a spokesperson for the EDA, as the 'development' component has yet to be calculated. However, it is expected that even when 'development' expenditure is added, US defence RTD expenditure will be considerably greater than that of Europe.