§ Lord Harrisonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What further steps they are taking to establish a fully open market for defence within the single European market, comparable to that found in 109WA Britain, reserving only the separate areas of nuclear, cryptography and intelligence systems. [HL4768]
§ Lord BachThe Government believe that there is a clear need to improve European defence capabilities. Improving the transparency and openness of defence procurement across Europe will be an important step towards this by providing greater access to European defence markets. The European Commission's Green Paper on defence procurement, published on 23 September 2004, and the creation of the European Defence Agency, provides an opportunity to discuss these issues in more depth.
As part of this debate, the Government have their own ideas on how a more open and transparent defence equipment market in Europe might be established. Our proposals were submitted to Parliament as part of our Explanatory Memorandum on the Commission's Green Paper on 28 October 2004, and centre on the use of a voluntary code of conduct covering a wide range of defence procurement. We are currently canvassing views on our proposals with other EU member states.