Paris, 6 June – The WEU Assembly has urged the European Union (EU) to boost investment in the aeronautics industry to ensure autonomy and maintain production capacity and technological know-how, but without sliding into protectionism.

Taking up the question of developing a costly Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), a report presented by Luis Yañez Barnuevo (Spain/Soc), on behalf of the Technological and Aerospace Committee, said the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) will probably be forced to join the US-led JSF/F-35 project “in order to benefit from any spin-offs and in the hope of penetrating the US market.” If not scrapped in favour of preserving the F-22 Raptor, the JSF will help determine the future of “an autonomous European defence capability  and any attempt to redress the balance in transatlantic relations,” the report said.

The report stressed the need for a common strategic policy for the European aerospace sector, an autonomous aerospace capability for European security and defence and a stronger commitment from European countries to military aerospace so that their industry is not weakened further by American and Russian competition. It called for a coordinated approach to armaments exports, harmonised defence aerospace requirements, greater cooperation with Russia and Ukraine, and support for Western European Armaments Group (WEAG) and Western European Armaments Organisation (WEAO) activities.

It noted that the European defence aeronautics industry “will also have to come to terms” with central European companies through NATO and EU enlargement”, but that the United States “presents the greatest challenge”. Without an independent European defence aeronautics industry, supported politically and financially by European countries, the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) “has neither sufficient means nor autonomy and cannot therefore redress the balance in transatlantic relations”.