There will also be Aiad in the committee of the EU defense fund. The role of Crosetto
The EU Commission has accepted the candidacy of Aiad (federation of Italian companies for aerospace, defense and security) in the technical committee in support of the European Defense Fund (EDF). Crosetto's activism for the appointment of Festucci
The European Defense Fund dossier is released for Italy.
Aiad, a federation that brings together Italian companies in the aerospace, defense and security sectors, has also been admitted to the technical committee that will oversee the management of the European Defense Fund (EDF). Just like the similar trade associations in Paris and Berlin.
With a budget of € 7.9 billion until 2027, approved on April 29 by the European Parliament, the EDF is managed by a new Directorate General, DG Defis, under the supervision of the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton. And alongside the DG Defis there is also a technical committee made up of independent experts.
Therefore, DG Defis had initiated the call for experts for the European Defense Industrial Development Program, to which Aiad responded by proposing the candidacy of its Secretary General, Carlo Festucci.
On Wednesday La Verità revealed that "after a tender procedure, the department that belongs to Thierry Breton has selected the representatives of the technical advisory committee behind the movements of the fund". “For Italy there are four representatives of as many companies. Nothing to do for ours, the Aiad ”, reported La Verità . Assuming therefore the exclusion from the committee of the Italian federation. Dossier for which the president Guido Crosetto has played an active role at the institutional, Italian and European level.
"But the Aiad has not been discarded, no letter has arrived", Carlo Festucci, general secretary of Aiad, had specified to Start .
Today the European Commission officially accepted the candidacy of Aiad and its representative, as Festucci himself confirmed to Start .
Therefore, the conclusions of a rejection of the Italian federation are premature.
WHAT THE TRUTH HAD REVEALED
In La Verità Claudio Antonelli wrote that “the Federation of Italian Aerospace and Defense Companies, led by Guido Crosetto, yesterday discovered that the twins from Paris and Berlin have placed their respective men, effectively unbalancing a delicate balance. Contacted by telephone, the president explained to us that he had pointed out the anomalous situation to the ambassador to the EU (since April, Pietro Benassi). As a matter of fact, asking for an intervention to report to the EU leaders. According to the truth, the letter of complaints would contain the term exclusion ”.
LEONARDO, FINCANTIERI, AVIO AND IVECO WITHIN THE COMMITTEE OF INDEPENDENT EXPERTS
According to La Verità, the Italian members are: “Cristina Leone for Leonardo, Massimo De Benedetti for Fincantieri and two other representatives of Avio and Iveco. Ditto for the other giants of EU defense. The trade associations of France and Germany were included in the committee ”.
"Nothing to do for ours, the Aiad", remarked the newspaper.
THE POSITION OF THE AIAD
“In reality, the Aiad has not yet been excluded from the committee of experts, the evaluation process is still underway”, Carlo Festucci explained to Start on Wednesday.
“Aiad represents a chain of small and medium-sized enterprises that cannot all be included in the commission of experts. If it is correct that in the commission of experts there are Leonardo and Fincantieri, we hope there is also Electronics, but then there are a whole series of companies that must be represented and coordinated by a single body which can only be Aiad ", he had highlighted Festucci.
AIAD ACCEPTED AFTER GIFAS AND BDLI HOMOLOGATIONS IN THE EDF COMMITTEE
“It is true that the signal is bad. The French Gifas immediately confirmed and the Italians still waiting ”, the general secretary of Aiad complained to Start .
"The basic problem is that in the commission that selected the candidates there are no Italians, when the French and Germans (who are predominant within the European system) have sponsored their associations and companies, these have passed immediately", Festucci had noticed.
But in the end, the European Commission accepted the Aiad in the technical committee for the EDF – albeit with a little delay compared to the Bdli and Gifas.
THE ROLE OF CROSETTO
According to the indiscretions of Start , the role of the president of Aiad, Guido Crosetto, is relevant to unblock the deadlock. Crosetto involved Italian authorities and European representatives in the matter: from the Secretary General of the Farnesina, Ettore Sequi, to the Minister of Defense, Lorenzo Guerini, from Undersecretary Enzo Amendola to General Claudio Graziano. The Aiad president had discussions at the highest levels of European institutions, for example with Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, as well as with Italian MEPs such as Fabio Massimo Castaldo (M5s) and Raffaele Fitto (Conservatives and reformists).
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/ci-sara-anche-aiad-nel-comitato-del-fondo-ue-per-la-difesa-il-ruolo-di-crosetto/ on Fri, 23 Jul 2021 13:52:25 +0000.