Council presentation

Why an economic Council of defence ?

The Defence Economy Council is an independent structure aimed to spread a clear-sighted message in matters of defence and security. Relaunched by thenew Minister of defence in October 2007, the Council sets a dialogue between leaders with acknowledged expertise in different fields: on the one hand, defence professionals, on the other hand, personalities from business, economics, international affairs, higher education, public administration and the media, and third , representatives of the Parliament and the politics.

Dealing with a generic topic " A defence adapted to international environment and taking into account european politics : which revival for european defence after the French presidency of the European Union ?", the five working groups of the Council will analyse the following questions.

• How guarantee that evolution of defence organization will conduce to a better efficiency of defence spending ?
• Following the proposal on "Energy and security", what are strategic stakes linked to raw materials, water and environment, and their interactions with security policy in France and Europe ?
• In which measure and in which fields european cooperation mecanism about civil research could be applied to military research, and boost it ?
• How develop and enhance subcontracted programms in defence activity (advantages, limits and operational measures, european as possible) ?
• Which political and institutional framework for an ambitious relaunch of European defence after the French presidency of the European Union ?

The messages or suggestions addressed to French and European leaders result from ideas and debates of around fifty French personalities associated to the Council, and around fifty European partners, all of them being given active responsibilities in the field of economics, university, public administration and politics.

The works of the Council will this year lead to :

• the publication of a book, signed by personnalities of the Council, which sum up and organize proposals from working groups resulted from their annual session ;
• the organization of European meetings in order to integrate to our work the vision of our European partners ;
• the organization of a European seminary in June 2009, intro the Minister of defence, dealing with Council proposals ;
• the award of the "Defence Economy Prize" rewarding a dissertation for PhD or master degree.

Led by its President Philippe Esper, the Council is constituted of :

• four executive personnalities, who animate the working groups : Professor Christian de Boissieu, Chairman of the Economic Analysis Council, Bernard Bigot, High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, Michel Scheller, Adivisor of Ineo-Suez Ceo, and Yves-Thibault de Silguy, Chairman of Vinci.
• the five high-ranking members of the Ministry of Defence : the Chief of Defence Staff, the General Delegate for Armament, the Secretary General for Administration, the Director for Strategic Affairs and the Chief of General Forces Control.
• representatives of the Parliament: Jean-Michel Boucheron, deputy of Ille et Vilaine, François Cornut-Gentille, deputy of Haute Marne and Yves Fréville, senator of Ille et Vilaine.