The European Commission is considering creating a new mechanism to simplify the process of selling arms. The move seeks to overtake the Pentagon in this regard, according to a consultation paper seen by Politico.
The US media outlet recalled that while EU governments significantly increased military spending amid the Ukraine conflict, the hefty arms deals have often gone to US defense contractors at the expense of European companies.
In light of this, the European Commission is seeking to copy the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) scheme, which allows the governments to buy directly from Washington without going through defense companies. Under the scheme, the governments can accelerate deliveries of equipment by drawing on US Department of Defense stocks.
"Should an EU equivalent of the US FMS scheme be considered, building on government-to-government schemes, to support procurement from the EDTIB by EU member states and support to partners, including Ukraine? If so, how should such a mechanism operate?" the consultation paper reads.
This comes after Breton told a French newspaper earlier that he was "fighting for [European countries] to buy European."
In a separate development this week, the chief executives of the largest European defense companies Airbus and Saab — Guillaume Faury and Micael Johansson, respectively – urged EU governments to be less reliant on US weapons.
"We can’t be so dependent on the US as we are right now,” Johansson said, adding that EU countries should reduce their share of purchases of US kit from 70% percent to 30%. Faury, in turn, called for the figure to plummet to 20%, saying, "We need a European preference to get to scale."
Earlier in November, the Pentagon approved the sale of M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks to Romania in a deal worth a whopping $2.5 billion. The sale followed the Biden administration announcing plans to sell over $1.5 billion worth of missiles to European countries through the FMS scheme.