In the EDTIB we trust(?)

ABSTRACT

The European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) is considered as a key element in the quest for a European Security and Defence Union. The EDTIB strategy initiated in 2007 aimed to lead to greater integration of the fragmented national defence industries of EU member-states, achieve economies through the coordination of defence industrial policy, the pooling of resources in the production and acquisition of weapons systems and better serve the political objectives of European defence. The paper examines the extent to which EU27 member-states satisfy their demand for arms through the procurement of EDTIB origin defence inputs. Moreover, it explores whether a process of convergence is present in terms of the share of EDTIB origin imports in the total arms imports of the EU member-states. The presence or not of a convergence process is examined empirically using β- and club convergence methodologies. In broad terms, the findings point to a process of convergence albeit at different speeds, as indicated by the club-convergence analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• European defence industry
• convergence
• European defence union
• arms imports
• arms trade

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank two anonymous referees for their insightful comments and constructive suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Vice-President & High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy & Vice-President Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, respectively when the reflection paper was published.

2 The new Biden administration has from the outset of its term communicated its strong commitment to mend transatlantic ties, reinforce them and reverse US retrenchment.

3 Currently a total of 46 projects are under development under the PESCO framework. They include maritime and air unmanned systems, cyber and C4ISR projects. https://pesco.europa.eu/.

4 For the many complex issues associated with multinational collaborative industrial programmes see for example Hartley (2012) and Mawdsley (2013).

5 https://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers.

6 A recent and comprehensive survey of the domestic defence industries of many EU countries can be found in Hartley and Belin (2020).

7 The US defence industry is by far the largest producer of weapons systems and military hardware globally.

8 Before Brexit. For a discussion on the effects of Brexit on EU’s defence integration see Svendsen (2019). Herein, we opt to focus the analysis on the EU27.

9 These are India, China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, UAE, Egypt, Australia, Taiwan, Pakistan.

10 For instance, during the period under scrutiny here (i.e. 1995–2019) the USA is ranked as the twelfth largest importer globally accounting for 2.6% of total arms imports.

11 https://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers.

12 With a standard deviation σ = 0.16.

13 The EDF started functioning on 1 January 2021. https://eda.europa.eu/what-we-do/EU-defence-initiatives/european-defence-fund-(edf).

14 Also referred to as the Defence Directive.

15 As presented in (4).

16 For example, surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles that are used to arm fighter planes and surface vessels such as frigates and destroyers.

17 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.