EUROPEAN CO-OPERATION CONCERNING ARMAMENTS

by Altiero Spinelli

SUMMARY: The European Parliament deals for the first time with the question of European co-operation on armaments, on the basis of a report prepared by Mr Klepsch on behalf of the Political Affairs Committee.

The directly elected European Parliament will prepare two further reports, also prepared by the Political Affairs Committee rapport Haagerup and Fergusson), which are both voted for by Spinelli.

Spinelli returned once again to the questions of external policy and European security, devoting the last period of his political career and life to these problems in particular in order to alert the European political and cultural world to the need to guarantee Europe's political independence. As his contribution to attaining that objective, he - together with Carlo Ripa di Meana, Emanuele Gazzo, Werner Maihofer, Jean Victor Louis and Jean Paul Jacqué rccorded his views on the promotion of political unity in Europe. On Spinelli's death, the promoters of that initiative set up an "Altiero Spinelli action committee" for European union, designed to revive the efforts to achieve a Europcan Federation. In "Speeches in European Parliament, 1976-1986", Pier Virgilio Dastoli Editor. (EP, 13 June 1978)

Mr President, I must first of all apologize to you and to Mr Klepsch as rapporteur for not being able to attend the whole of the debate, because I was involved as rapporteur in a meeting with the President of Parliament in trying to resolve a difficulty in connection with the budget. However, I followed the subject in committee, and on behalf of the Italian members of the Communist and Allies Group I rise to summarize the reasons why we shall support the motion for a resolution.

I should like to begin by voicing an objection, though it has now been overtaken by an amendment which Mr Klepsch is himself moving. In the third recital of the motion for a resolution, there is a reference to the need to maintain a high level of employment in defence-related industries. We, on the contrary, would like to see as low a level of employment as possible in these particular industries, because we certainly ought not to pick on them in order to produce full employment. There are plenty of good arguments which can be used, but this is not one of them. However, Mr Klepsch has himself recognized this and has proposed an amendment which, I imagine, will be adopted without difficulty.

We cannot ignore the fact that the public supply market which is known in every country as 'the armed forces' constitutes a substantial slice of the industrial structure of our countries. We know that military purchases, from the most sophisticated aircraft, missiles and other weapons to the purchase of boots, uniforms and textiles for military use, play an important role in a variety of industries. The existence of some industries directly depends on the develop-merit of this market. The European aeronautical industry is an example. When we refer to it we always think of 'Concorde' and other civil aircraft, but there is also the whole of the military side, which constitutes a huge slice of the turnover of the aicraft industry, and if that part disappeared or began to run down it would probably mean the end of that industry, at least as longs as things remain as they are today. Any Community conception of industrial policy and recovery must therefore take account of the whole of these various aspects of the

industrial structures concerned. We must open up the public supply market as much as we can, and that goes for defence requirements too. But if we are to move in that direction there must be at least some degree of planning of common types of weapon and standard purchases to enable the industry to rely on a steady volume of orders and make use of methods of rationalization and improvement which will allow them to sell at competitive prices.

Apart from the need to pursue a general policy of reducing armaments and expediting the process of disarmament, it is noticeable that in cases where, however rarely, defence authorities stop fighting for their old suppliers on the spot (in some countries more than in others) and, as Mr Klepsch has reminde us, operate systems of international cooperation between various European States, they get good results that is to say, results that are technically good. In the vast majority of cases, however, and especially in the case of heavy armaments, we depend on the American market. We depend too much on the American market, much to our disadvantage, and at a heavy cost in economic and political terms. In some of our countries we have paid dearly for the disastrous consequences of this relationship, and perhaps we may not yet have paid in full.

In these circumstances we must embark on a determined policy of procuremerit coordination, and to do this we must find channels, such as agencies, who will work on the basis of joint planning of purchasing and will make joint purchases so as to give the European industry an assured market. In this way, we shall do something to help the European industrial system and we shall be doing something of political value, because it will bring greater independence to Europe as a whole.

We must remember that in this field the choice is not that between national independence and European unity but between joint European action and dependence upon a great non-European power which we want to have as a friend - and we can be sure that we shall have her as a friend - but we do not want her acting as the boss in every important field. All these considerations make it clear that the first thing to be done is for the Commission to bring itself to study the problem in detail, to submit proposals to us and start discussing them with Parliament, so that we can help each other to find the best way of presenting them to the Governments and the Council.

The Commission has among its documents one which I once submitted on the important industry of aircraft production. In the document there was in fact a proposal for the establishment of an agency for European purchases of military aricraft with a view to paving the way for the revival of the aeronautical industry as a whole. I believe the Commission should now tackle the problem in a wider context and make proposals to us along the lines indicated.