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tarting 2007, the European
Commission plans
to invest considerable
funds in a research and
technology development
program to improve security
in Europe. The manner
in which the European Security Research
Program (ESRP) will ultimately
be implemented and the exact amount
of research funds available are as yet
unclear. The experience gained in the
course of the so-called Preparatory Action
launched at the beginning of 2004
will be taken into account for the actual
performance of the program. The European
agency in the field of defence capabilities,
development, research, acquisition
and armaments – this agency
is still to be created – will also play an
important role in this context. Rheinmetall
DeTec AG has been following developments
very closely and is represented
in various of the working groups
involved in the Preparatory Action.
The European Commission has initiated
the planned security program in
reaction to the challenges associated
with the EU’s eastern enlargement and
the changed security situation in re-
cent years, leading to the further development
of EU common foreign and security
policy toward a European security
and defence policy.
Generally speaking, the Commission
believes that not enough money is being
spent on research and development
in Europe, and that the limited
funds are not being used optimally, especially
where security aspects are
concerned. For instance, various EU
member states are working on the
same subjects independently of one
another since each of these countries
wants to have a good standing in as
many areas as possible. This means
that inadequate funds are available for
the individual areas. Such a lack of coordination
has a negative impact on
the competitiveness of the industry.
In view of the increasingly serious
threats posed by international terrorism,
the propagation of weapons of
mass destruction, and organized crime
that is partly assisted by weaker states,
it has become more and more difficult
to assure the security of European citizens.
The recent enlargement of the EU
by another ten states (Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and
Newsline
Cyprus) has also brought EU borders
geographically closer to areas of conflict.
As a community with (now) 25
member states and a total population
of 455 million producing around one
quarter of the world’s gross national
product, the European Union has – economically
– developed into a global
player. The EU must therefore be able
and willing to contribute toward international
security. This also implies that
it must help toward greater security and
stability jointly with partners outside
the European territory, if necessary also
supported by its armed forces.
The question as to whether Europe
will be able to master this challenge also
depends on the availability of a competitive
European technology base. To
maintain and expand this, coordinated
research and adequate funding are essential.
Although the EU has gained extensive
experience in civil community
research programs with its so-called
Framework Programs, it is breaking new
ground with its ESRP initiative. The collaboration
between companies in the
security sector raises new questions
which remain to be answered. These
concern the way in which information
classified as confidential or secret is
handled, national priorities and interests
and also technical, contractual and
implementation aspects.
To answer these questions, the
Preparatory Action for the Enhancement
of European Industrial Potential
in the Field of Security Research was
launched at the beginning of this year.
This action program seeks to establish
the conceptual bases for the ESRP by
the year 2006. It is also hoped that first
results for top-priority problems may
already be reached with a limited number
of (test) projects. All in all, around
€ 65 million have been allocated to the
Preparatory Action program.
The European defence industry has
shown strong interest in the security
research, and also in the Preparatory
Action initiative although only limited
funds are available for this (in 2004,
approx. € 15 million). It is generally assumed
that the national research and
technology budgets (in Germany, the
research and technology budget of the
German MoD) will become less important
with the advent of the ESRP. Companies
are therefore using the Preparatory
Action to get prepared for the allocation
of research funds from Brussels.
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Rheinmetall DeTec AG has been following
related developments closely
since early 2003. One focus has been
the involvement in national and European
industrial associations. Rheinmetall
DeTec employees are helping to
shape the security program through
their participation in several security
research working groups.
The Preparatory Action aims to address
these missions:
1. Achieving interoperability and integrated
systems for information and
communication
2. Optimizing security and protection
of networked systems
3. Improving situation awareness
4. Protection against terrorism (including
bio-terrorism and incidents
with biological, chemical and other
substances)
5. Enhancing crisis management (including
evacuation, search and rescue
measures, active agents control and remediation)
A so-called Security Mission Industry
Group (SMIG) has been created for
each of these missions. These working
groups are composed of experts from
EU launches security research
companies interested in performing
projects in the respective area. The
SMIG teams are tasked with bundling
the interests of the industry, agreeing
on two to three concrete projects and
setting priorities. The SMIG groups also
provide appropriate platforms for forging
partnerships for project work.
Representatives of Rheinmetall Defence
are members of SMIG 3 and SMIG
4, which address the mentioned priority
missions concerning the improvement
of situation awareness and the protection
against terrorism. The leaders of
the working groups report to the socalled
Industry
Working Group on
Security (IWGS) in
which the Düsseldorf-based
group
also has a representative.
Calls for
project proposals
to be dealt with under
the Preparatory
Action program are
published in the
Dr. Joachim Bremer
Official Journal of the European Commission.
Dr. Joachim Bremer*
* Dr. Joachim Bremer, the author of this Newsline article,
specializes in strategic technology development at
Rheinmetall DeTec AG in Düsseldorf.