Establishing a ‘Single Defense Market’ in Europe, ‘Swissification’ to Exclude the Far Right

Establishing a ‘Single Defense Market’ in Europe, ‘Swissification’ to Exclude the Far Right

Europe is attempting a ‘Single Defense Market’ system for a ‘Single Defense Market’, and a Swiss-style ‘permanent neutralization’ plan has been proposed to exclude the far right.
Regarding the ‘Single Defense Market’ in Europe, the EU Commission has proposed applying EU preferential treatment to ‘public procurement for strategic defense-related sectors and technologies’, which is expected to make it difficult for Korea to enter Europe with weapons consisting of US-made standard copies.
In the draft European Security White Paper, which will be officially published next Wednesday (the 19th), the European Commission has encouraged ‘joint procurement purchases’ by EU member states to fill important security capability gaps by establishing a ‘Single Defense Market’ including Ukraine.

The white paper, first released by Reuters on the 13th, includes consultations among EU countries for a ‘rapid agreement’ system on the most urgent defense needs in order to launch a ‘large-scale pan-European flagship project’. The white paper states that the European Commission will "propose to deepen the European single defence market, particularly by increasing clarity on procurement and regulatory simplification and harmonization," and that "the EU should consider introducing a European priority for public procurement in strategic defence-related sectors."

European independent media outlet Euractiv reported on the 13th that the white paper "is once again promoting the idea that EU countries should purchase defence equipment together," adding that "the ultimate goal is to fill critical capacity gaps in many countries, such as drones, air defence and munitions, and avoid dependence on suppliers."
Euractiv wrote that the white paper "can only make a difference if member states work together," and that "the white paper will present critical capacity gaps (most of which are known and on which member states will ultimately decide what to purchase) and funding ideas to guide defence-related work over the next five years.

Last week, the European Commission announced five measures to invest 800 billion euros to boost defence industry production and arms procurement.

The White Paper proposes a “single defence market” for Europe, with EU preferences for “public procurement of strategic defence-related sectors and technologies” and “strategic reserves for industrial purposes” and a European government-to-government sales mechanism, stating that “European preferences will only be effective when relevant European products are available”.
The “public procurement” rules set out in the White Paper state that <1) seek EU solutions; 2) negotiate with European suppliers with EU support to reduce prices and lead times while ensuring the required level of performance; 3) for defence systems where there are no EU solutions available within the required price, delay and performance, Member States should consider pooling and integrating demand for like-minded third-country companies that require full control; 4) in parallel, the EU should support the development of equivalent European technologies and capabilities.
EU countries are currently negotiating the “EU Industrial Programme (EDIP)” as a “production boost” strategy in the “joint procurement” system. The White Paper seeks to reassure Member States that defence policy remains a core national competence, stating that “Member States will maintain their leadership in defence, benefiting from the added value provided by the EU and making the most of the single market”.

In the EU Defence White Paper, on the topic of ‘seven critical arms strategy gaps’, the Commission lists seven areas where there are “a number of different core competence projects” and where EU countries should jointly prioritise spending as they have an EU-wide impact.

Projects designated as common interest projects under these ‘closing the gaps’ strategies are provided with the opportunity to benefit from additional EU funding and exemptions from environmental regulations.
The seven arms areas of common interest for European countries identified in the White Paper are:
1) Air and missile defence: an integrated multi-layered air and missile defence shield that protects against the full range of airborne threats (cruise missiles, ballistic and hypersonic missiles, aircraft and UAS) and is fully integrated into NATO’s command and control systems. 2) Artillery systems: Advanced fire systems, including modern artillery and long-range missile systems designed to deliver accurate long-range strikes against ground targets.
3) Ammunition and missiles: Strategic stockpiles of ammunition, missiles and components, together with sufficient defence industrial production capacity to replenish them in a timely manner.
4) Drones and counter-drone systems: Unmanned systems, including airborne, ground, surface and underwater vehicles, which can be remotely controlled or operate autonomously using advanced software and sensors.
5) Military mobility: An EU-wide network of land corridors, airports, ports and support elements and services facilitating the smooth and rapid transport of troops and military equipment across the EU and partner countries.
6) Al, quantum technologies, cyber and electronic warfare: Defensive applications using military Al and quantum computing; a) Advanced electronic systems at EU level designed to protect and secure the use of the electromagnetic spectrum for land, air, space and naval operations;
b) Deterring, disrupting and denying the use of the electromagnetic spectrum by an adversary; c) Protect freedom to operate in cyberspace and ensure unhindered access to cyber capabilities.
7) Protect strategic enablers, combat capabilities and critical infrastructure: including but not limited to strategic airlift and air-to-air refuelling aircraft, maritime domain awareness, combat capabilities (air, land and sea), space shield and eastern border shield for ground border security.

The white paper identifies areas where Europe has ‘capability gaps’ such as air and missile defence, artillery, ammunition and missiles, drones, military transport, artificial intelligence, cyber warfare and infrastructure protection, and states that there is a “strong case for addressing these capability gaps in a collaborative manner” and that it is “jointly procuring to address the gaps”.
The white paper states that “the EU faces an ‘unprecedented security threat’ since the return of conventional warfare to Europe in February 2022 with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” and that “Europe cannot take for granted the security guarantees of the United States and must substantially increase its contribution to maintaining the strength of the transatlantic security alliance, NATO”.

‘Euractiv’ stated in a column that day, “The far right has ruined European politics,” and “It is time for Europe to become more Swiss. Excluding the far right will not work in Europe. It may be time to think about something new.” Regarding the root cause of European instability, the column diagnosed, “The far right parties have eaten up so much of the votes of centrist parties that their ability to establish centrist policies is in serious danger.” “The more centrist parties collude to drive out fascists and their allies, the more centrists will merge into an indistinguishable mass, and this will attract more voters who are tired of the same old thing to a uniquely polarized alternative.”

As a result, “In some German states, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now approaching an absolute majority, which is why the Anglo-Saxon first-come-first-served voting system does not do the trick,” and “It is a good means of creating a stable one-party government, but it also hands over the nuclear codes to ‘stable geniuses’ like Trump,” he said, revealing the side effects of the Trump regime’s support for the far-right in Europe.

The column stated that as a ‘solution,’ “Switzerland is the country where no party has come close to a majority for decades and has not turned into an Orban-style semi-dictatorship,” and “The Swiss government, the Federal Council, consisting of seven members, is a permanent grand coalition of four major parties, including the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP), and positions are allocated according to a fixed formula that takes into account the strength of the parties in parliament, important decisions are made collectively, and the parliamentary majority is formed on a case-by-case basis.”

The ‘collective decision-making system’ that prevents far-right politicization has prevented far-right-led and dominated governments, despite the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) being the largest party, thereby preventing ‘elite collusion’ from cooperating with multi-party centrist coalitions, and the SVP’s vote share has remained ‘manageable’ in Switzerland for over 100 years without becoming extremely large.

The column stated that “Swiss liberals may not like Switzerland’s consistent conservative bias, and as the long-standing right-wing attempt to increase Switzerland’s defense budget has shown, not everything works smoothly,” and that “the 100-year-old Swiss model with its relatively moderate SVP cannot be transferred to other parts of the continent, but since the exclusion of the far-right in European countries has not worked in Europe so far and is combined with Trump’s support for the far-right, it is time to think about something new.”

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