The Spanish defense industry defends the need to find a "middle ground" in protectionism and to be "pragmatic" in order to continue gaining competitiveness in Europe against the United States (US) and China.
This idea has been repeated in the dialogue "The great panel of the Spanish defense industry," organized by "El País" this Thursday, with the intervention of the CEO of Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E), Fernando Fernández, the CEO of Aicox, Carlos Félix Laborda, the CEO of Amper, Enrique López Pérez, and the general director of defense and security of GMV, Ricardo Sáenz Amandi.
The representative of the family company of brothers Ángel and Javier Escribano has emphasized that "protectionism for the sake of protectionism does not work" and has urged to seek a "balance" that allows the industry to advance.
"When we become aware of collaborating, not as an end, but as a goal to be better and seek that balance to achieve it, we will find the formula," he stated, pointing out that today that formula rests on "competitiveness and on the one who is the best leading, and not by tradition."
At the same time, Fernández has warned that "Europe cannot depend on what is voted in Wisconsin" and has insisted that "we have to fight or, at least, try to achieve that autonomy."
Balance between protectionism and cooperation in the EU
In a similar line, López (Amper) has expressed that he defends a "pragmatism and middle ground in the European Union" between the protectionism of the member states and the cooperation among them, with the aim of strengthening competitiveness against the US and China.
He has admitted that "we are not prepared to replace American technology and capabilities overnight, that is impossible, we do not have all the time we would like, but there is money, so what we also have to do is prioritize, since there are certain capabilities that are more essential for technological sovereignty, strategic autonomy, which is where we need to focus."
In this sense, he added that "probably we also need to focus on others, that are niches, where Europe can take a leadership that generates a cross-dependence and that at a given moment we can also have a leadership that can generate a certain dependence towards, in this case for example, the US."
For its part, Laborda (Aicox), after emphasizing the key role of talent, has encouraged in terms of innovation to "lose the fear of failing, to try, lose the fear to be up to the task, and start walking in order to be able to run".
Finally, Sáenz (GMV) has pointed out that one of the main problems of Europe in front of the great defense powers is that large programs, such as missile programs, require cooperation between industries and countries, which introduces additional obstacles to advance in a coordinated manner.
"We have to decide where to prioritize and in which technologies we want to have that control, not absolute control, but at least to have control, and resources are limited," he pointed out, before highlighting that the Ministry of Defense is also making "an effort to know what capabilities exist in Spain".