Anti-war activists have spoken out against plans to use EU funding for defence research, as the EU ploughs ahead with a programme that could be incorporated into Framework 9.
A petition against a €90-million preparatory action that will start in 2017 gained 63,000 signatures ahead of a European Parliament vote on the budget on 26 October. Its organiser Laëtitia Sédou, programme officer at the European Network Against Arms Trade, said there had been limited public discussion on EU funding for military research. “Part of what we wanted to do was to expose what was happening,” she said.
The petition failed to convince a majority of MEPs not to support the 2017 budget, and on 28 October the first grant agreements for a 2016 military research pilot programme were signed. However, German left-wing MEP Sabine Lösing, who backed an amendment opposing the plans for defence research spending, said she would continue to fight. “We should focus on real social problems, and not accelerate the militarisation of the EU,” she said.
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