At least Romania does not pretend that "European solidarity" is more than a well-packed business. Bucharest put coffee on the table: here are 21 programmes financed from SAFE, these are the amounts, these are the circumstantial systems. No fog, no marketing cotton wool, no patriotic carryovers covering invoices issued in euro.
And the bill? We pay together. They make mostly Germans.
There are no sentiments in the land domain – there are hard contracts. 139 Piranha V transporters from General Dynamics European Land Systems for over €761 million. Additionally, 198 fresh generation combat infantry cars for almost EUR 3 billion. Over 1370 logistics trucks. Integrated OPL command posts. Hundreds of launchers and nearly a 1000 missiles for portable anti-aircraft kits.
What about the cherry on the cake? Rheinmetall systems: SKYNEX (476 million euro) and Skyranger 35 (330 million euro). Modern, effective, costly – and German.
It's not just an army upgrade anymore. This is simply a transfer of funds under the "European Mechanism" which in practice pumps billions into the arms manufacture of our western neighbours. And it's not that the equipment's bad. The thing is, someone's winning on this thing.
In the maritime domain – 2 more short-range anti-aircraft systems Millennium from Rheinmetall, patrol vessels for 700 million euros, units to work with divers. Again: concrete, numbers, producers.
Air? Treated by stepmother. due to the fact that SAFE isn't about building full-scale air force. SAFE is from the fact that European manufacture – mainly Western – has profits.
But the most interesting thing about it is something else.
Romania, the second largest beneficiary of SAFE (about EUR 16 billion), published a list of projects. 10 national programmes, 11 global programmes. We know where the money goes. We know who's producing. We know who's gonna make it.
And Poland? Silence. Understatements. Generality.
And here's the bottom line.
It's not that Romania buys German systems. Each country has the right to acquisition the best available solutions. The point is that the financial mechanism, which was expected to strengthen common security, in practice cements the dominance of respective of the largest industrial players.
SAFE becomes a tool for redistributing funds from the periphery to the center. From taxpayers of Central and east Europe to companies from Germany and respective another countries of the “old Union”.
European solidarity or the European profit account?
Of course, that is the reality of the market. Germany has developed industry, so they sell. But if common loans are to finance mainly the orders of the largest, then we halt talking about solidarity and start with a structural advantage.
At least Romania is not pretending otherwise. She showed the numbers. She showed the beneficiaries. It has shown that SAFE is not an abstract "security fund", but very concrete billions of very circumstantial companies.
And possibly that's why this transparency hurts more than the contracts themselves.
Because erstwhile we look at this EUR 16 billion, we see more than modernising the Romanian army. We see a map of the money flow in Europe. And we see who's handing out cards in this layout.
And now the most crucial question many like not to ask:
Does anyone else truly believe that Poland will be different????
Because let's look honestly at the mechanism, not the passwords.
If SAFE works according to the same logic across the Union – a common credit, a common framework, a preference for “European” projects, i.e. in practice implemented by the largest Western companies – why should an economical miracle abruptly happen in Warsaw?
Will it abruptly turn out that:
billions of euros will stay in the Polish industry?
Polish plants will become the main integrator of systems?
technologies will be transferred, not just assembled?
The supply chain will decision over the Vistula?
Really?
At least Romania doesn't beat around the bush. We can see directly: Rheinmetall, GDELS, western suppliers, western technologies, western margins. We know the pattern, too. License, monttown, offset in the advertising folder and ‘strategic partnership’ which ends with a screwdriver.
If Poland enters SAFE on the same terms, the effect will be very similar. Large orders will go where products, certifications, political influences and capital are ready. Who's got it? Berlin, Paris, Madrid – not Radom, not Steel Wola, not Gliwice as full owners of technology.
Of course, individual will say, “but safety has no price.” It's true. Only that industrial sovereignty does not be either – and without it safety will always be partially dependent on someone's factory, someone's export decision, someone's policy.
SAFE in its current form looks more like a mechanics to stabilise the Western defence manufacture than a real effort to compensate for possible across the EU.
So again:
Does anyone truly think that Poland will be different?
Because if the rules don't change, only the contract numbers will change. The beneficiaries will stay the same.
Developed by Dariusz Piechaczek (behind the fb profile)
