The European Commission will propose several options for promoting research and development (R&D) related to technologies with dual-use potential, namely, those that can be used for both civil and military purposes, such as drones and satellites, according to the paper seen by Euractiv.
The EU’s executive also proposed that EU member states recommend measures to strengthen research security at the EU and national levels.
Geopolitics looming
The five new components are the latest additions to the EU’s growing trade defence toolbox, which includes filtering foreign direct investments into the EU and a newly agreed anti-coercion instrument that foresees trade countermeasures against economic coercion.
Though China is only mentioned once in the package, the set of new tools should be viewed against the background of EU-China-US relations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last spring spelled out the bloc’s new ‘China doctrine’, stating that while it would not be in Europe’s interest to decouple itself fully from Beijing, the bloc should, however, look into diplomatic and economic ‘de-risking’.
But they also come as the EU is in an increasingly uncomfortable geopolitical spot due to deepening tensions between the US and China. Member states are currently torn over how to act, with some reluctant to start a trade war with Beijing, a major economic partner of several larger EU member states.
Washington, meanwhile, has been doubling down on its hawkish stance toward Beijing and is pushing the EU to follow suit.
On this issue, EU officials and diplomats expect the pressure to increase towards the end of the year when US presidential elections could see the return of Donald Trump to the White House, or the victory of a China-hawkish Republican candidate.
At the same time, the economic security strategy also aims at defending Europe’s strategic sectors from being bought piecemeal by other countries, as was recently the case of Saudi Telecoms quietly taking over Spain’s telecom giant Telefonica.
Luca Bertuzzi contributed to the reporting.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
