RIGHTS: EU Boosts Arms Manufacturers http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50927

Arms traders are to be given a central role in formulating a new European Union (EU) blueprint for stimulating weapons production, it has been confirmed. The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, has said it will draw up an action plan for how small and medium-sized companies that manufacture military goods or their components can be strengthened. 

Dagmar Metzger, an EU official overseeing support for the weapons industry, says that contact between civil servants in Brussels and arms traders will be increased. The AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD), an umbrella group for arms-makers, is to be intimately involved in deciding the plan's contents.

Slijper lamented that the growing EU support for the arms industry is not being subject to proper democratic scrutiny. "Brussels in general is very unreceptive to people who are critical of their views," he said. "They want to bolster their projects and they don't like people who start asking difficult questions about the ethical aspects of these projects. This is an area of the EU's work that is happening outside the public view. People in Brussels prefer to keep it that way." (END)

comment-also see...The emerging EU Military- Industrial Complex http://www.voteno.ie/resources/eumilitary.pdf   Interview: Neoconopticon report http://tni.org/interview/interview-neoconopticon-report