Today's Date:

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THE MINISTER – The first is a certain autonomy. For strategic reasons, I would like France to be able to take the decisions which serve her interests. What is true for France has to be true for Europe. Secondly, I'd like us to have a competitive armaments industry, not just for domestic reasons, but also for exports. We are also keen to contribute to the creation of a European industry. This is why we have developed the major European programmes, but we had to persuade the Germans to participate in the A400M military transport plane and the Spaniards to choose the Tiger combat helicopter. We have also established the European Defense Agency, giving it ambitious objectives. Our Defense policy has four pillars: joint determination of military requirements, coordination of research efforts, development of major European programmes and industrial and technological policy. I was very pleased to see that the British are taking exactly the same line as us on this, as the Germans are now too. Another priority is the policy of industrial collaboration in certain sectors to form world-scale enterprises in land and naval armaments. Because in the face of international competition, particularly from South-East Asia, we shall very quickly be outflanked if we don't achieve this scale.

THE MINISTER – The principle consists in giving preference to European research and a European Defense industry. But in some strategic spheres where decisions could encroach on sovereignty, we have to be able to protect ourselves. And there are some restrictive rules prohibiting the export of equipment containing certain components, particularly American ones, without the authorization of the country of origin. That is the nub of the problem. This is why I have asked the Defense Economic Council to clarify the general principles applying to these very strategic areas. Our level of technology and research today allows us to be on the same footing as the Americans. And even ahead in some areas. But because we need to safeguard our autonomy we also have to acquire certain technological skills.

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THE MINISTER – We can still increase our exports subject to a certain number of conditions. We can’t sell at any price. One of the reasons we lost some contracts, including recently, is because the prices asked were too high. Furthermore, we need to make a serious effort to provide after-sales follow-up. Here too there’s some dissatisfaction because of a lack of after-sales support. We’re marketing to countries which also have economic development and employment concerns. This can work in our favour compared with other sellers like the United States: we must offer our buyers industrial and social support, possibly in the form of a transfer of technology or of activities. When we have key customers, we also need in some cases to be able to rely on them to set up new product lines to meet specific needs which we can’t necessarily satisfy here in France, in support of what they are doing, in partnership with them./.