How’s the law on ammunition production?
All the details on the parliamentary hearing of the general secretary of the Federation of Italian Aerospace, Defense and Security Companies (Aiad), Carlo Festucci, on the law in support of the production of ammunition (ASAP)
The Federation of Italian Companies for Aerospace, Defense and Security (Aiad) supports the Proposal for a regulation on the law in support of the production of ammunition.
On 3 May, the European Commission adopted the law in support of ammunition production (ASAP), putting into practice the line of action of the plan agreed by the Council on 20 March, aimed at urgently supplying munitions and missiles to Ukraine and helping member states to replenish their stocks.
On 9 May 2023, the European Parliament approved the request to activate the urgent procedure for examining the proposal, aimed at approving its position at first reading, in the context of the ordinary legislative procedure, on the occasion of the plenary of 31 May – 1 June 2023. And last week the ambassadors of EU countries reached agreement on the plan to increase the production of ammunition to one million pieces a year. Now the text will be negotiated with the European Parliament to reach the final agreement.
On 28 June, the Commission for European Union Policies of the Chamber of Deputies concluded its examination by assessing the proposal as compliant with the principle of subsidiarity set out in article 5 of the Treaty on European Union.
The process has not yet concluded in the Senate where on 4 July the Foreign Affairs and Defense commission held the hearing of the Secretary General of AIAD, Carlo Festucci, as part of the Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the law in support of munitions production.
"The subject of today's discussion is a necessity: to guarantee a constant flow of weapons to Ukraine, to avoid shortages in national stocks," explained Festucci.
WHAT THE PROPOSAL FOR A REGULATION OF THE EU PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL PROVIDES
As the House dossier explains, the proposal for a regulation in question, presented by the European Commission on 3 May, introduces measures aimed at strengthening the reactivity of the European Defense Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) and the EU's ability to guarantee the availability and the timely procurement of ground-to-ground munitions and artillery ammunition as well as missiles (“Relevant Defense Products”).
To this end, the new discipline, which would be provisional and urgent in nature, finding application until 30 June 2025, provides for: financial support for industrial strengthening for the production of relevant defense products in the Union, including through the procurement of their components; identification, mapping and ongoing monitoring of the availability of relevant defense products, their components and corresponding inputs (raw materials); the establishment of mechanisms, principles and temporary standards to ensure the timely and sustained availability of relevant defense products to their purchasers in the Union.
In the explanatory report that accompanies it, the initiative in question is considered complementary to the proposal for a regulation on the instrument for strengthening the European defense industry through joint procurement (Edirpa) and underlines that it will pave the way for the future European investment program in the defense sector (EDIP).
THE RESOURCES PROVIDED
Therefore, the funding scheme is made up of a 500 million euro fund from the Community budget (260 million will be transferred from the European Defense Fund and 240 million from the Edirpa Procurement Fund), EU co-financing quotas up to a maximum of 60% per project, and resources to be redirected from the Pnrr and from the cohesion policy.
AIAD'S OPINION ON THE LAW IN SUPPORT OF THE PRODUCTION OF AMMUNITION
“The Commission is trying to start putting the embryos for a common defense industrial policy” explained the secretary general Festucci in a hearing in the Senate Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission. "You start from one part of the ammunition sector, a small piece to get where you want to go" he added.
And it is important for Italy not to fall behind at the European table since "the strongest countries are those that have the possibility of accessing these loans" therefore "we must be careful to be the first to enter" within this mechanism .
Equally fundamental "as a country is to be a leader in a sector where we already are but where we risk being marginalized due to lack of raw materials" underlined the AIAD representative.
LOOK AT THE GERMAN OR FRENCH EXAMPLE
“The war in Ukraine has upset everything because today everyone realizes what it means to have a defence” Festucci made clear, recalling that “Germany wants to be first, it is investing significantly and France is doing it too”, “ we are talking about nations that have very different political, state and military apparatus from ours”.
"We are one of the countries with the highest technological capacity, but we have some critical points and this depends on how we invest in certain sectors" explained the secretary general, also reiterating the need to update Law 185 which regulates Italian military exports, essential for the defense sector, as also emerged on the occasion of the AIAD general assembly, which was also held publicly on 3 July in Rome.
And the president of Aiad had already urged Parliament to amend the law so as to streamline the authorization processes.
"What our law for the regulation of exports lacks is greater objectivity and greater clarity of the government footprint of the decisions concerning exports" highlighted the president Giuseppe Cossiga, in a hearing before the Foreign Affairs and Defense commission of the Senate last February. "Today the structure that regulates law 185 is within the Foreign Ministry [Uama] which collects the strategic aspects which are then coordinated at the level of the Prime Minister" explained President Aiad. “Different countries such as France have a more direct system in which the sale is authorized or supported directly by the presidency of the Republic, and therefore with a speed and speed of execution superior to ours”, Cossiga pointed out, adding that we need to improve “the speed of execution, because Italian companies often suffer from too long procedures”.
SECURE THE RESOURCES
Finally, "when we see the European Edf or Edip programs through which other countries pass" we must think that "we are not technologically inferior to the others but we must think about them and structure them well" exhorted Festucci. “We are talking about a Europe that doesn't exist, but about a Europe that we would like to exist. In our sector the competing programs are not those outside the EU but the internal ones”.
So "This document does not want to implement diversity but we must work so that our reasons are heard" concluded the AIAD secretary general.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/come-va-la-legge-sulla-produzione-di-munizioni/ on Wed, 05 Jul 2023 07:43:58 +0000.