Krauss-Maffei Wegmann – Nexter: A Rapid Integration as the Key for a Real Marriage

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 the merger between Nexter and Krauss‐Maffei‐Wegmann, announced in 2014 and finalized in 2015, was of particular importance, which the French and the German, and generally all European countries, should be aware of. The consolidation process of the European defence industry ‐ initiated in the 1990s with a joint letter from the President of France, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Chancellor of Germany, calling for the creation of a common aeronautical and defence company, with the OCCAR agreement signed in 1996 and the Letter of Intent (LoI) agreement in 2000 ‐ was motivated by two reasons. The first one was that the reduction of defence budgets after the Cold War did not allow for the maintenance of the European defence industry structure as it was, for it was affected with overcapacities. The second reason was a political one. European industrial reconstruction in the field of defence, initiated with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and consolidated in 1999 when the European (later: Common) Security and Defence Policy institutions were set up, seemed to give companies the necessary political signal to begin the process of consolidation. Indeed, defence companies only had one type of client, the States, and European companies from this sector had an interest in regrouping only if they felt that States wanted to jointly define their needs in military equipment.

• Primary Source

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

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