Franco FrattDet er økonomien, dummen"

Franco Frattini:

'It's the economy stupid'

All the member states of our alliance,

United States, Canada

as well as European member states,

are obliged to cut

horizontally their budgets.

We have to manage that situation.

We cannot afford transforming

needs of better spending

into lowering security level.

It is very easy

for a given government to say:

Okay, I had to reduce by 3%

all the chapters of my budget. I do.

Much more difficult is it to choose

which ones had to be reduced,

which ones are to be increased.

Why don’t we think,

instead of leaving national states

to horizontal and unilateral

decisions of cutting spending,

to find within NATO a coordinating,

a consultation system

where decisions are made together?

For example, by a division of labour.

Some member states of the alliance

are better equipped in some field,

think about air refuelling,

while other states

are better equipped

for research and technological

investments on cyber security.

Why don’t we decide together

how to optimize rather than decrease

simply the spending

on defence and security?