Asked about the fate of Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft (HDW), the shipbuilding industry leading German military, the defense minister Peter Struck, whose statements were released yesterday by the French newspaper La Tribune said that "one of a 'maritime EADS' is a good formula," suggesting, therefore, go to the shipping industry the same way that four years ago was choice for the aerospace industry through the establishment of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), with capital in hand, 80%, to a Franco-German consortium.
HDW is the world leader in the construction of conventional submarines, and in particular in the field of silent propulsion through fuel cells. Its capital is, since June 2002, entirely in the hands of American fund One Equity Partners (OEP). Because of the constraints that the German government imposes on military exports, OEP has decided to sell HDW. In the running for the acquisition, the German ThyssenKrupp, and the French Thales and DCN (this controlled by the government in Paris). But that will have to 'face competition from a strong contender: the American shipbuilding group Northrop Grumman. According to Struck
"Europe must preserve the existence of a strong naval shipbuilding sector." Berlin intends to avoid so that the know-how of HDW reaches across the Atlantic. In early August, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had called for a "German solution", but the difficult financial situation of the Thyssen group makes this route impractical. A Franco-German cooperation appears to be the only alternative.
So, if the "Summit of the four" on European defense convened in Brussels in April by the Belgian government has turned into a stalemate, the business plan but the Paris-Berlin axis shows its determination to strengthen cooperation with a view to creating a single market in armaments that can ensure a greater weight and greater autonomy for the European industry.
London has always been hostile to any project to build an autonomous European defense alliance Atlantic, meanwhile, prepares his own counter-moves. The Times yesterday reported a project of the British government seeks to create a "planning cell European military "but that works' within the structures of NATO operations or ability to manage without it, but never against, Washington (in essence, the model applied for the EU peacekeeping mission in Macedonia). The proposal seeks a side to take out the ambitions of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, on the other to prepare the ground for the battle that the UK intends to launch the Intergovernmental Conference that, starting in October, will launch the draft European Constitution: London's goal is to obtain the cancellation of those standards approved by the Convention, which give the possibility to a group of states to proceed through the instrument of enhanced cooperation on the road to greater integration of defense structures. And on this, as well as the right of veto on tax, London does not seem willing to negotiate.
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