Advisors or Advocates? The European Defence Industry as a Political Actor in EU Policymaking

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union (EU) has proposed and launched an ambitious defence industrial agenda. The European Commission, historically seen as a technocratic actor, has been a driving force in proposing new regulatory and strategic initiatives in this previously closed policy sector. This development raises the question of how the Commission, and EU policymaking at large, copes with expansion to new policy sectors where expertise might be lacking or insufficient. This paper provides two main arguments. Firstly, the defence industry has become an increasingly important actor in EU policymaking both by lobbying and providing technical expertise. Secondly, the Commission strategically exploits this expertise to strengthen its agenda-setting and regulatory power on EU defence, emphasizing how industry expertise strengthens the Commission’s legitimacy within the sector. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates how the defence industry is active both on the input and output side of EU policymaking. On the input side, defence industry associations and defence firms are actively lobbying EU institutions to shape EU defence policies. Associations and firms are regularly being consulted on technical and strategic aspects of new initiatives. On the output side, the defence industry is the target of EU’s new initiatives, and the success of these largely depends on industry’s compliance. Because of the defence market’s unique features, the duality of the defence industry’s role raises questions regarding the public-private governance of the sector. Its monopsonistic character, where demand is driven by security logics rather than price, makes defence firms dependent on national authorities, while authorities simultaneously are dependent on firms to produce technological highly advanced products. In addition, the defence market produces many classified technologies which are the result of long development and procurement processes. At the EU level, the Commission lacks sufficient expertise and competence to monitor and evaluate defence production, enhancing the defence industry’s epistemic advantage vis-à-vis the Commission. Because the defence market’s particular features, industry expertise does not only inform EU policymaking, but it actively shapes the relationship between public and private actors. In addition, the Commission’s reliance on industry expertise enables it to assert itself in a sector predominantly shaped by national governments. This creates a three-way governance structure between the Commission, the industry, and the member states. This paper examines the defence industry’s role in EU policymaking by analysing two new EU initiatives on defence: the European Defence Industry Program (EDIP) and the White Paper on Defence – Readiness 2030. The analysis is built on semi-structured elite interviews with defence industry representatives and EU oOicials, as well as public data such as strategic documents, reports, and press releases. This paper contributes to the growing literature on EU defence policy by highlighting the complex dynamics of public and private actors involved in the policymaking process, and how the defence industry has become a political actor. In addition, the paper contributes to the literature on the Commission’s influence on EU defence by showing how it strategically makes use of the industry’s technical expertise to create legitimacy in this sector.