Armaments chief Carsten Stawitzki said multinational programmes can take too much time
EU defence procurement shouldn’t be focused on a single European system but rather on fostering development across various competing programmes to boost innovation, Carsten Stawitzki, the head of the armaments department of Germany’s defence ministry, told Euractiv.
In an interview ahead of the launch of a dedicated Brussels bureau for the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support, or BAAINBw for short, Stawitzki argued that the EU’s drive to create a single European defence market risks stifling technological competition by encouraging joint procurement over the development of rival systems.
“In my view, there is a fundamental realisation that has not yet sunk in in Brussels,” said Stawitzki. “We must move away from competition based on public procurement law – which leads to the harmonisation of the European defence market – towards technological competition, in order to secure the best products for our security and defence.”
He said that Europe should invest in competing technologies to produce the best military equipment, pointing to Ukraine’s wartime procurement model as an example.
