Sciences Citoyennes est co-signataire de cette lettre ouverte aux parlementaires européens
Dear Member of the European Parliament,
on Wednesday 12 December, you will make a decisive vote on the proposal for a European Defence Fund [1] to dedicate €13 billion for research and development projects in military technologies during the next multi-financial framework.
44 non-profit organisations across Europe have recently alerted about the risks the current proposal entails [2], regarding the diversion of funds from civilian priorities and the over-influence of the arms industry, as well as the possible contribution to the development of killer-robots [3] [3]and the future exports of EU-funded goods.
European s [4]cientist [4]s are also alarmed by this military turn of the EU and the potential development of autonomous weapons [4], echoing previous concerns from the international rersearch community [5] at large
T [6]he ombudsman [6]raised concerns about the lack of transparency around the advisory role of the industry [6] on the setting-up of EU funds for military research, which could lead to a perception of conflict of interest, and concluded to maladministration by the European Commission [7] for not answering adequately to civil society requests for information.
In your role as direct representatives of EU citizens, we urge you to pay a particular attention to the coming vote and, if not to reject the proposal as such, to at least support those amendments that could mitigate some of the mentioned risks, by:
- excluding projects related to armed drones until there is a legal framework for their use;
- excluding projects that could contribute to the development of fully autonomous weapons;
- introducing a stricter control on the future exports of EU-funded military technologies.
Sincerely yours,