European Parliament Adopts Defence Innovation Report 411-133: Warns Start-Ups Are Forced to Sell to Non-EU Investors or Relocate
The European Parliament adopted a defence innovation report on November 12 by 411 votes in favour, 133 against and 41 abstentions, calling on the EU to ease the disproportionate administrative burdens and improve access to finance for defence start-ups and small and medium-sized companies, so that technology invented in Europe is made in Europe instead of being sold to non-EU investors or relocated, including to the United States.
The report, prepared by the Committee on Security and Defence with Latvian MEP Mārtiņš Staķis as rapporteur, finds that Europe's defence start-ups and SMEs face two distinct 'valleys of death': between technological development and capability validation, and between validation and market adoption, with lengthy funding, testing and procurement procedures. Since the first European Defence Fund call in 2021, only 7% of its financing has gone to project lines linked to innovation and SMEs, even though SMEs provide about 70% of the total value of European defence systems. MEPs expressed concern that many European defence actors are forced to sell to non-EU investors or relocate because of a lack of available and willing capital within the EU, and called for real contracts and testing facilities for smaller companies, joint procurement by member states, an end to 27 separate approval processes, more dedicated support for drones and counter-drone systems, and lessons from Ukraine's compressed innovation and procurement timelines.
'Europe has no shortage of brilliant ideas. What it is short of is the willingness to take risks,' Staķis said. 'Our small companies invent excellent new defence technologies, but too often they never make it into production, or they end up growing in the United States or elsewhere. If it is invented in Europe, it must be made in Europe.'
(Source: European Parliament)
Source: European Parliament
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于法国斯特拉斯堡的欧洲议会大会堂（CC BY-SA 3.0，David Iliff，经 Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: The European Parliament hemicycle in Strasbourg, France (CC BY-SA 3.0, David Iliff, via Wikimedia Commons).
