“It’s not that just because you sign a contract, a company is immediately able to execute it,” said Breton. “Production capacity really needs to be increased. The supply lines for the parts must be streamlined. There needs to be better cooperation. And there is support for that.” This is a first: never before has the EU made money available for the expansion of the defense industry.
This concerns, for example, the training of personnel, the joint purchase of parts and raw materials, the modernization of existing machines and the purchase of new ones. The European Commission will monitor the supply of raw materials and ensure that the right priorities are set in the distribution among the various manufacturers. The companies that Breton visited in eleven countries are still regarded by each of those countries as being of national strategic importance. If you view them as one production organization, you can work more efficiently, says the European Commissioner.
Thierry Breton is also the man who was sent by the EU during the corona pandemic to get vaccine production into high gear. In a previous life he was CEO of France Télécom and IT company Atos and Minister of Economic Affairs, Finance and Industry.
