"Parliamentary questions

17 November 2021 

Question for written answer E-005152/2021 to the Commission Rule 138

Anna Bonfrisco (ID), Marco Campomenosi (ID) 

Subject: European defence acquisitions: the case of the Franco-German KNDS bid for the purchase of Leonardo’s OTO Melara and Wass

The European Union is a political construction based on a community of interests, which are often technological: in the past, these were in coal, steel and atomic research, and more recently, in aerospace, hydrogen, batteries, vaccines and enabling and disruptive technologies.

1 What is the Commission’s view of the compatibility between the European defence industry’s ability to take over industries and win markets of the future and internal industrial takeovers within the EU in the same sector, as is the case with the Franco-German KNDS bid for the purchase of Leonardo’s OTO Melara and Wass?

2 In terms of respecting and promoting national sovereignty, would it prefer a European industrial defence policy involving cooperation between national industries, including in European consortia, or absorption by larger industrial conglomerates from some Member States?

3 Accordingly, with a view to creating European defence technology champions, identified in the defence industrial fabric of France, Italy, Germany and Spain in particular, which represent an ecosystem with specific needs to be safeguarded in the process of economic recovery, how does it view the bid made by the Franco-German company KNDS to buy OTO Melara and Wass from Leonardo?

Last updated: 30 November 2021".