Filenews 15 November 2024
Support through funding for joint defence procurement has been approved by the European Commission for five cross-border cooperations, including the cooperation of nine member states on joint procurement of air defence systems in which Cyprus participates.
In particular, Cyprus participates together with eight other Member States in the "MISTRAL" project, which concerns the joint procurement of air defence systems.
The funding approved by the Commission on Thursday amounts to €300 million. It concerns five projects implemented under the Financial Mechanism to strengthen the European defence industry through joint procurement (EDIRPA), which will receive €60 million each.
The projects concern joint procurement in three areas: air defence and anti-missile systems, the procurement of modern armoured vehicles, and the procurement of ammunition, involving a total of 20 Member States, some of them for the first time.
Cyprus participates together with France, Belgium, Estonia, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania and Denmark in the "MISTRAL" project for the joint procurement of "Mistral" very short-range air defense systems.
Also, in the field of air defence, the Joint Air Missile Defence Initiative in Europe (JAMIE) project concerns the joint procurement of IRIS-T SLM medium-range air defence systems by six Member States (Germany, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Austria, Estonia, Lithuania). These are air threat protection systems such as fighter jets, attack helicopters and unmanned aerial systems.
In the area of armoured procurement, funding will support the procurement of the Common Armoured Vehicle System (CAVS) for transporting troops from four Member States (Finland, Latvia, Sweden and Germany).
In the field of ammunition procurement, the EDIRPA Fund supports two joint procurement projects of different types of 155mm artillery ammunition: the CPoA 155mm project involving six Member States (Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Croatia) and the HE 155mm project, involving four Member States (Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia).
The five selected EDIRPA projects for all three sectors will now enter the preparation phase of the grant agreement, which includes detailed coordination between the Commission and consortia of Member States' public authorities.
The logic of joint procurement is about ensuring better and more affordable prices thanks to economies of scale, but also about improving interoperability between Member States' defence systems. At the same time, the contracts will contribute to strengthening the European defence industry.
Most of the selected projects also include the provision of defense supplies for Ukraine as well, including air and anti-missile systems as well as ammunition.
CNA
