Description
The European objective of building a stronger and unified EU defence industrial base (DIB is best expressed by Defence and Security Procurement Directive 81/2009/EC (2009 Directive) which attempts to apply common market rules to the acquisition of military materiel. With the Ukrainian conflict and Brexit referendum, efforts toward this goal have been renewed through multiple programs and European Commission activity in pursuing compliance. Yet most EU member states still broadly avail themselves of exceptions to derogate EU rules and award direct preference to their national defence industries - the pivotal argument for an exception being constructed on the concept of Security of Supply (SoS). SoS is often misinterpreted or intentionally misconstrued and offers a key understudied angle of investigation into progress toward a common defence market. As representative of a number of EU states who are not tier 1 producers, are not geopolitically overexposed, yet wish to develop their national DIBs, and to that end instrumentally and increasingly utilize the SoS argument to justify exceptions from Directive 81/2009/EC – we investigate two exemplary procurement processes in the Czech Republic. Based on a large set of stakeholder interviews, legal analysis, and comparative analysis we contribute to the EU-wide discussion on the common defence market and national interpretations of pertinent EU legislation and guidelines. We find the use of SoS argumentation to be understudied, purposefully misconstrued, and legally inapplicable in an array of its current uses.
