“It's part of the defense omnibus. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. And I would really like to thank the rapporteur. And here, the honourable members for the preparing this timely, actually own initiative reports on the defense single market. I say timely because, um, this is also certainly will feed in to our, uh, upcoming communication the defense single market that was announced in the commission work programme for the beginning of next year. Um, so in the context of the Defence Readiness 2030, I think a truly functioning A different single market. Putting innovation at the heart of Europe is the most effective way for member states to restock their arsenals and build up their readiness to have a credible deterrence. So a truly functioning single market in the Union creates has three advantages. First of all, it allows member states to unlock economies of scale, taking advantage of a wider and more stable defence market, bringing also prices down. Second, it provides better access to EU suppliers. It was mentioned also by several members giving more opportunities for our SMEs, mid-caps but also existing players and also it reduces dependencies from non EU providers, which is also an important point in the current geopolitical landscape to ensure the union's long term viability as a global player. And last but not least, it supports the competitiveness of the European defence industrial base to ensure that the defence spending by the Member States is directed to the growth and development of the European defence industry ecosystem. So it was mentioned also that the Defence Readiness Simplification Omnibus that is currently under discussion, and I would like to thank here the Co-rapporteurs for the their supportive statements, our proposals to facilitate a common procurement, defence procurement and also to facilitate the flow of defence products within the internal market are key. And in that sense, we are really looking forward of receiving the final report by this House. Thank you very much.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · Defence spending · EU competences on defence