The European Network Against Arms Trade invites you to
the online relaunch of Open Security Data Europe
“Who benefits from EU military and security funding?”
When: Tuesday 08 November, 14:30 CET
14:30: Presentation of the public data platform Open Security Data Europe
14:40: EU funding for civilian security: for what and for whom?
14:50: Main beneficiaries of the EU Defence Fund: who are they and what is their profile?
15:10: Q&A session
15:30: closure
speakers: Zach Campbell (investigative journalist), Caitlin L. Chandler (investigative journalist), Chris Jones (Executive Director, Statewatch), Mark Akkerman, (researcher, Stop Wapenhandel), B. Arneson (Research Coordinator, Corruption Tracker)
Click here to register for the launch event
Description
As a journalist, researcher, organisation or movement, are you wondering which companies, public agencies and research institutions benefit from the billion Euros in military and civilian security funding that the European Union has spent since 2007?* Have you had trouble finding detailed information on who the beneficiaries are, in which projects they are involved and how much money they receive? Or would you like to know how many projects a particular company has participated in, and how much money they have made in total?
Although publicly available, this information is currently spread across different EU agencies, departments and online tools, some of them being particularly complex to search. Other data must be requested from national entities directly.
Opensecuritydata.eu was created in 2021 by journalists Zach Campbell and Caitlin L. Chandler, and Chris Jones, Executive Director of Statewatch, with a grant from the International Press Institute and the European Journalism Centre.
Now, ENAAT is supporting Campbell, Chandler and Jones to update opensecuritydata.eu to include European Union military data, as well as update the civil security data on the platform.
Join us to find out more about the updated data platform, which aggregates this information under an accessible and user-friendly format, covering all the beneficiaries of EU military and civil security funding since 2007.
*background information:
Horizon Europe is a research programme with a total budget of €95.5 billion from 2021-27. The security theme (Civil Security for Society) has a budget of €1.56 billion over that period. Research projects, mainly aimed at developing new technologies (in particular surveillance technologies) are aimed at help with disaster preparedness and response (ranging from terrorist attacks to industrial disasters, floods and forest fires); ‘protection and security’ (crime, radicalisation, terrorism and border control); and cybersecurity
The Internal Security Fund is intended to reinforce the powers of the police and other law-enforcement actors. For the 2021-27 period it has a budget of €1.9 billion, split between EU member states (€1.35 billion) and the European Commission (€579 million). The funding aims to deal with “preventing and combating terrorism and radicalisation, serious and organised crime, and cybercrime,” amongst other things.
Since 2017 the EU is funding military research & development projects, first through two pilot programmes (the Preparatory Action for Defence Research – PADR, and the European Defence Industrial Development Programme – EDIDP) with a total budget of €590 million from 2017 to 2020.
For the period 2021-2027, the fully-fledged European Defence Fund (EDF) amounts to €8 billion. The objectives of the Fund are to develop the next generation of weaponry and to boost the global competitiveness of the arms industry, and thus its ability to export weapons abroad.