Europe First versus America First

Ivo Belet, a Belgian member of the European Parliament wrote an article for the Standaard today. Available here in Dutch.ut

He ask the government to replace the F-16's with a European fighter-bomber. He proposes this as a reaction tot the Amarica First policy of Donald Trump. Trump is not fully committed to NATO, according to Belet. As a reaction the European countries should become more self-reliant in the field of defence. This also means buying European military hardware.

There are also several other fields where interests are conflicting between Belgium and the new presidency. The climate agreement of Paris is highly valued by Belgium and most other European countries. Donald Trump considers pulling out of the agreement.. This would no doubt, damage the US-European relationship.

Belet also mentions a second point. EU law restricts the economic returns that countries can ask of defence companies. The goal of this legislation was to create a level playing field in the market to prevent nationalistic purchases. This should enable military forces to get the best bang for their buck instead of being limited by political pressure to buy from their own national companies at a higher price. By now most defence companies are multinationals with fixed subcontractors. According to Ivo Belet, the existing rules make it hard for new subcontractors to break into pre-existing relations.

Ivo Belet is a MEP from the christian-democratic CD&V. Although the CD&V takes part in the current federal administration, the final decision will be taken by the entire Belgian government. Federal vice-prime minister Kris Peeters from the same party has made a statement that the request for proposal is still open to all bidders, including the F-35A. So the JSF is not out, but it is politically unattractive to buy TRUMP.

Trump made it clear at the NATO summit that he expects the European members to invest more in defence. Several other European countries have repeated that request but in different degrees and manners. Chancellor Angela Merkel also wishes to imprive the European defence but she stresses different points. This puts political pressure on the Belgian government to prove their commitment to NATO. What better way to do this, then by buying a NATO but European fighter? So the neutral Swedish Gripen might be at a disadvantage here. The Belgian MoD also seems adamant to replace 54 F-16's with 34 new but bigger jets. For Saab, it would be better if they could compete with more jets for the same price.

An in all, the current political climate is negative for the Gripen and F-35A; but positive for the European/NATO Rafale and Eurofighter.

Nonetheless all contenders will have to prove their metal in the request for proposal.