Dutch minister calls for EU Defence Commissioner

Outgoing Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren (D66/Renew) urged the next European Commission on Thursday to create a separate commissioner post for defence, stressing the need to boost arms procurement and military spending within the EU.

Ollongren, who previously advocated for a larger EU role within NATO, suggested the new Commissioner spot during an interview with Dutch radio station BNR.

“I think it would be a good idea for the next European Commission to put this very high on the agenda, for there to be a European commissioner who spends 100% of his or her time [on Defence] alone”, Ollongren said during the interview.

“This Commission has already taken this up, but in the defence industry in particular, this is still quite fragmented. A lot is approached from a national interest perspective,” she added.

The outgoing minister’s call comes as the EU struggles to flesh out its proposal for a comprehensive roadmap for arms production – the European Defence Industry Strategy (EDIS) – amid concerns about a lack of funding and incentives for EU member states to cooperate on joint procurement, with Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton postponing the strategy’s presentation until next year.

“We will present a European defence industry strategy (EDIS) early next year, during the first quarter of 2024,” Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton confirmed to Euractiv in a statement on 17 October.

While Ollongren commended Breton’s efforts to boost cooperation within the EU, she opined that a separate commissioner should take over the portfolio given the urgency.

The new commissioner should aim to increase arms production within the bloc while also guaranteeing the introduction of general standards to promote cohesion between member states.

She said that while political actors such as Russian President Vladimir Putin can ramp up war economies without significant hurdles, the EU still faces challenges such as staff shortages, a lack of resources and reluctant companies that only start production when all contracts are signed.

“I say: just go produce, we will take it. Our budgets have been increased, and they remain high. Support for Ukraine is not decreasing for the time being. We really need it,” the minister appealed.

A thorny issue causing headaches in many EU countries is how increased defence spending could affect the EU bloc’s strict fiscal rules.

According to a draft compromise seen by Euractiv earlier this week, defence spending could be granted special status in the EU fiscal rules under the new economic governance review (EGR) in a bid to encourage member state investment in this area.

A draft paper tabled by the Spanish presidency of the EU Council suggests that member states that increase defence spending should be handled with more leniency if they exceed the EU’s deficit rule that limits member state budget deficits to a maximum of 3% of GDP.

Breaking this rule typically triggers the so-called Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP), which requires the concerned member state to take corrective action within a certain deadline.

The paper states an “increase of government investment in defence compared to the average over the four years before the plan, where applicable, to be explicitly recognised as a specific relevant factor when triggering an Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP), alongside other relevant factors”.

Read more: Defence spending could get special status in new EU deficit rules

In an op-ed published in late 2019, Jo Coelmont, a senior fellow of the Royal Higher Institute for Defence in Brussels, commented that a defence commissioner is a missing piece of Europe’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) puzzle.

“The time is ripe to appoint a commissioner for security and defence, with competences in the areas of space, cyber and defence, and in particular for the industrial dimension of the production of all required civilian and military capabilities. He/she would contribute to the decision-making on the definition of capability priorities”, he noted.

He added that the creation of a European Security Council at the level of Heads of State and Government would also be needed, to take decisions on the launching of civilian and military operations.

(Benedikt Stöckl | Euractiv.com – Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos)