Military Mobility Updates
April saw the release of a Special Report on EU Military Mobility by the European Court of Auditors that found design weaknesses and obstacles in the execution of the four core pillars of the programme. One of the reasons for this is a lack of attention from industry, as transport infrastructure developers lean towards the civilian CEF-T and defence technological players go to EDF, as both believing the other side will be more interested in the programme. A second reason is the fragmentation of parliamentary oversight due to overlapping responsibilities. The third reason is a lack of funding and focus on dual-use infrastructure.
The core pillars that form the objective of the Military Mobility programme are:
- Upgrade the multimodal TEN-T corridors and transport hubs to become strong dual-use infrastructure and support potential short-notice large scale movement of military forces and logistics.
- Regulatory support from Member States to digitalise processes relating to customs logistics and military mobility systems.
- Increasing the resilience of transport systems by increasing energy efficiency and protecting against potential climate risks, cyber-attacks, and other hybrid threats.
- Reinforcing cooperative connectivity with key strategic and regional partners, such as Norway and Ukraine.
In the context of COVID-19, the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework had cut the initial proposal of €5.8 billion to a final budget of €1.5 billion, which was then frontloaded to the 2021, 2022, and 2023 calls due to the start of the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, with the threat level increasing and the objectives of the Military Mobility programme not having been fully met, an increase of the budget and resumption of the programme has been requested.
The report is a strong recommendation in favour of EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius’ previously stated intentions to boost EU Military Mobility funding to €70 billion.
An announcement of this year’s Military Mobility call for proposals is expected this summer in the case that the programme will indeed be resumed.
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