- 18/11/2020 Ref. Ares(2020)6881565        Mrs Despina Spanou Head of Cabinet Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President Promoting our European Way of Life European Commission Rue de la Loi 200 1049 Brussels Brussels, 16 September 2020 Subject: Security research under the next Multiannual Financial Framework Dear Mrs Spanou, ASD represents the interests of more than 3000 aerospace and defence companies from across Europe. Many of our members have also important activities in security and have participated for years in the EU security research programme. Though room for improvement clearly exists, we consider this programme as an important contribution to the development of the technologies that are needed to make Europe safer and more secure. It is therefore with great concern that we have learned about a possible reduction of the security research budget under the next MFF. We fully understand the complexity of the current budget negotiations, and the difficulty to balance priorities across all EU policies. However, a reduction of the security research budget would stand in contrast to the Union’s declared policy objectives and go against all lessons from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Reducing EU funding in security research would weaken the international competitiveness of European industry and increase Europe’s technological dependency in sensitive areas. If the Union wants to become more resilient and strive for greater Technology Sovereignty, it must invest more, not less, to sustain critical industrial and technological capacities. An ambitious security research programme is an essential building block in this endeavor. Given the importance of this programme for Europe’s security and technological leadership, we trust on you to consider this as a top priority and do your utmost to prevent any reduction of EU security research funding in the current budget negotiations. ASD stands ready to support you in this endeavor and remains at your disposal for any additional information you may find useful. Yours sincerely, ASD | Rue Montoyer 10 I 1000 Brussels, Belgium I T: +32 2 775 81 10 I info@asd-europe.org I www.asd-europe.org