Defence procurement in the European Union

In September 2004, the European Commission issued a Green Paper on defence procurement, proposing various options to improve transparency and openness of defence markets between EU member states. The Green Paper opened a discussion on procurement law which rapidly widened into a general debate on how to move towards a common Defence Equipment Market. The present report is the fruit of that work. It concludes that Communication, Directive and Code are not alternatives to one another, but complementary. It therefore recommends that all three of them should be developed concurrently. In order to optimise their effectiveness, the Commission and the Defence Agency should work out solutions in related areas. All of these initiatives should be launched in parallel as part of a comprehensive strategy for the establishment of a common European Defence Equipment Market.