Deploying Financial Tools in Support of European Defence Cooperation

The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS) is one of the main independent European Think Tanks on geopolitical and strategic issues.

IRIS, a public-interest association created in 1991, is a French think tank on geopolitical and strategic issues. It is the only international think tank to have been set up as a totally private initiative in an independent approach. IRIS activities can be divided into four fields: research, organisation of events and meetings, publishing and training.

The Armament Industry European Research Group (Ares Group) was created in 2016 by The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS), who coordinates the Group. The aim of the Ares Group, a high-level network of security and defence specialists across Europe, is to provide a forum to the European armament community, bringing together top defence industrial policy specialists, to encourage fresh strategic thinking in the field, develop innovative policy proposals and conduct studies for public and private actors.Abstract:

This comment argues that as of early 2017, European defence cooperation was not at the level it should have been.
With its Action Plan on European Defence adopted on 30th November 2016, the Commission deployed a set of incentives that had the potential to re‐boost European defence cooperation. It was now up to Member States to act upon the European Union’s incentives, bearing in mind the rapidly changing environment and the need to build a genuinely European strategic autonomy.

• Primary Source

IRIS: ARES – Armament Industry European Research Group http://www.iris-france.org/ares/

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