European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposes central arms reserve capitals could draw from

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.18-150511/https://www.ft.com/content/aedd1e6b-fb4f-41fd-af10-af9dce6f88dc

The European Commission is seeking to set up collective arms purchasing for the entire bloc, in what would represent a significant transfer of power to Brussels.

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU’s executive, said on Tuesday that the bloc would set up a “European Military Sales Mechanism” — a strategic reserve of European weaponry that capitals could purchase from to refill their own inventories.

The initiative is part of the continent’s rearmament drive and aims to provide additional orders for arms manufacturers which have struggled to scale up production despite Russia’s war in Ukraine.

  • golli@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    5 hours ago

    The one issue that i see is that in a way (at least some) countries are on both the buyer and seller side. As long as there is still drive to favor domestic companies and keep know-how/capabilities rather than sharing them.

    That’s what usually hinders joint development projects e.g. between France and Germany. Both want as large of a share as possible to go to their own industry. Or i think it is partially why Poland went with korean tanks, rather than leopards (but i might remember this one wrong).

    To me it seems like this will particularly be interesting to smaller countries without large weapon manufacturers, but maybe it could also help us here in Germany to finally fix our terrible procurement system.