Potential Cost Efficiencies through Enhanced Military Collaboration in the European Union

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1,0, École des hautes études commerciales de Paris, language: English, abstract: Defense budgets in Europe are under pressure since the financial crisis due to tight fiscal policy and rising equipment costs. An end to these trends is not in sight and military cooperation is seen as a potential solution to release the financial burden on defense and to enhance interoperability. To test the magnitude of these savings and to identify the main drivers, the author conducted a comparative analysis of past research on savings through military cooperation and subsequently tested the results with expert interviews. The analysis yielded that the UK, France, Germany and Italy can expect to save up to 20% of their combined defense expenditures through cooperation and that savings from personnel and investments are the most relevant. The expert interviews largely supported the results, but revealed that their implementation may be difficult due to political and organizational reasons.