In the context of European collective efforts to modernise and improve the efficiency of its defence systems, concrete, realistic measures must be taken to guarantee rigorous and efficient management of European cooperative programmes. We should avoid unnec-essary and costly duplication and at the same time be able to respond to the capability requirements of the European Union – considered as a political entity – by a rational utilisation of available financial means. The present situation is very disappointing, with less than 20 %of defence-related investments by the EU member states devoted to European cooperation programmes.

• There are three, closely interlinked, areas in which actions need to be taken to modify this situation:
• management of new programmes,
• industrial organisation for their implementation,
• adoption of new rules for the geogra-phic return expected by the Participating States, in order to avoid the negative consequences on programmes of a narrow-minded application of such rules.