Warsaw, 14 November 2010 - EUROPEAN ALLIES ARE NOT LIVING UP TO COMMITMENTS ON DEFENCE SPENDING, NATO OFFICIAL SAYS

At this rate, he noted Europe might become a “protectorate” of the United States, or even China for some countries, within the next 50 years, Boland said.

For the last 50 years, European allies “have been able to rely on US defence spending”, he said, but this State of affairs will likely expire within the next generation.

He said he was particularly concerned that spending levels might not rebound after the financial crisis, as slimmed-down security budgets are adopted.

As a member of the audience pointed out, the drop in military investment by some countries could be hard to reconcile with their obligations under the Alliance ’s article 5 on mutual defence.

NATO’s force planning process is designed to avoid just such a mismatch, Boland explained, and to ensure a fair sharing of the burden on different members’ resources.

During the debate which followed his presentation, several possible solutions were discussed. Common procurement for example, could introduce economies of sale to the procurement process. Also, some NATO countries have more expertise in dealing with suppliers than others, Boland said, and could benefit from the experience of their Allies.

Such co-ordination would also help ensure that industrial and research interests do not drive production and procurement of defence-related goods and services.

However, the very nature of military investment makes it politically difficult to share the relevant information, he conceded.  He dismissed the suggestion that NATO headquarters in Brussels was considering a procurement advisory board, but pointed to the work of the NATO Maintenance and Supply Organization, or NAMSO.

Based in Luxembourg, NAMSO is available to provide expertise and recommendations to Alliance members and partner countries where necessary and appropriate, he said.

Regarding the suggestion from the floor that parliamentary delegations might observe other Allies’ procurement as a benchmarking exercise, Boland said that it was entirely within the remit of the parliaments concerned, but that he thought “it would produce interesting results”.

Budgets are suffering not only from a lack of co-operation among supposed allies, Boland said, but also from the changing nature of operations, especially “out of area”.

In Afghanistan, to take the most pertinent example, for every 10 active soldiers on patrol there are roughly 90 troops in supporting roles on base.

But adapting to the new requirements was bound to take time, Boland said. Defence spending tends to be committed five or six years ahead, so now was the time to start looking at future requirements.