Celebration of the 20th anniversary of the signature of the occar convention and official inauguration of the bonn premises

We have celebrated today the 20th anniversary of the signature of the Convention of the Organisation Conjointe de Cooperation en Matiere d’Armement as well as its growth with the official inauguration of the new Bonn premises.

The event has consisted of a ribbon cutting, by the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, LtGen  DEbaene, and the Director of OCCAR, Mr Arturo Alfonso Meirino, followed by a series of speeches pronounced by LtGen Debaene, Mr Stefan Krushke, the Ambassador before the International Organisations of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of NRW, Mr Reinhard Limbach, the Mayor of Bonn, and Mr Meirino. The event finished with a buffet lunch.

The BoS Chairman, LtGen Rudy Debaene, and the OCCAR Director, Arturo Alfonso Meirino, whilst cutting the ribbon (C) OCCAR.

During the speeches, particular emphasis was given to the mission that the OCCAR Convention assigned to the new Organisation: promoting cooperation, improving efficiency and reducing the costs of armament programmes. This was aimed to obtain defence systems necessary to overcome the many military capability shortfalls of the old continent.

20 years later, the vision of the founding fathers of OCCAR regarding the European identity of security and defence is a reality. The Organisation has grown from the initial 5 to its current 13 complex defence acquisition programmes, valued at more than 60 billion euros, with the participation of its 6 MSs and another 7 non-Member Participating States. A centre of excellence that has proven not to be a closed club. The participation of Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia, The Netherlands or Turkey, in some of our programmes is a great example of OCCAR’s flexibility and  accessibility to all European Nations.

The OCCAR Director during his speech (c)  OCCAR

As a result of the commitment of our Member States and Programme Participating States, that have entrusted us with new programmes, and are about to join existing programmes, we have inaugurated our new premises, thus expanding our physical footprint, technical capacity and capability in Bonn. This will allow us to accommodate the requirements of existing and new programmes that may result from the new investment cycles of European Nations, and of the initiatives of the European Commission.

OCCAR-EA staff members in front of the new premises (c) OCCAR.