Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-09-Speech-2-161"
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"en.20020409.7.2-161"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is important that this debate today is also touching on industrial aspects of European defence policy. We should remind ourselves that the founding fathers of the European Union did not create it because they wanted economic cooperation, but because its prime task was to ensure peace, so that there was a plan for a European defence policy as far back as the period between 1952 and 1954. It is a good thing that we are picking up where we left off then.
Commissioner Patten has presented us with a challenge. He has asked us this question: would we be willing to demand that 14% should be spent on defence, as is the case in the United States? However, I would first like to make another demand, and that is the demand that the money we are already spending on defence should be spent more sensibly, instead of having 15 different policies in this area. We need to take advantage of the synergy that can be achieved if we work together in this field.
Part of this is that the rules of Europe's internal market need to be applied more in this field. There are some sensible exceptions here, but these exceptions are applied too widely, and we therefore need to make sure that these rules are applied more fully. For 15 different nations finally to work together implies a certain standardisation in this area, as otherwise there will be enormous problems of incompatibility. We have already developed standardisation procedures in the civilian world that could be helpful here, especially as regards dual use.
Lastly, we should not lose sight of the fact that the most important pilot project in this field is the crisis management force agreed upon in Helsinki. The question is this: should the European Union actually take over the leading role in Macedonia in the foreseeable future? I believe that we need to consider that very carefully. We should not put the cart before the horse here. We should not let ourselves get into a situation in which we can be blackmailed by either side, because this first European intervention will be of the utmost importance for us."@en1
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