On Wednesday, 22 May 2019, the Minister of National Defence Evangelos Apostolakis met at his office with the European Union Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs, Ms. Elżbieta Bieńkowska.
During their meeting, they discussed matters of EU policy concerning the European Defence Fund and the European Defence Cooperation.
The Minister of National Defence stressed, among others, that:
– The defence cooperation of member-states is critical for the reinforcement of EU’s defence identity.
– Greece actively participates in the implementation of EU defence-related policies [European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP), European Defence Fund (EDF)], which aim at boosting the innovation and competitiveness of the European defence industry. Within this framework, the Minister of National Defence stressed that the success of the EDIDP will be decided based on its degree of interconnection with the domestic defence industries, as well as the efforts made domestically to reinforce the Hellenic defence industry.
– The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and similar EU financing programmes are tools reinforcing the defence cooperation among member-states in order to achieve EU strategic autonomy. Greece supports PESCO with actions, being the lead country in 5 projects and participating in 13 more. The exceptional participation of third parties in PESCO projects must not be contrary to the security interests of the Union and its member-states. In any case, it must be based on the Union’s principles and values, according to its primary law and the good neighbourly relations principle.
