“Romania, a chief member of the EU’s awkward squad, appears on another collision course with Brussels as it joins Bulgaria and the Czech Republic on a list of countries that have been warned about transparency in defense procurement,” the magazine writes, adding the EC has confirmed for BNE it has sent letters to the governments of the three member states.
All three countries are looking to buy fighter jets, part of a wider procurement program in Emerging Europe over the next decade that the defense industry estimates could generate sales of over 200 jets. With the economic downturn squeezing defense budgets across the world, these tenders are regarded as crucial for an industry suffering from cost cutting and job losses, hence the fierce competition amongst manufacturers such as the US’ Lockheed Martin, the Eurofighter consortium (made up of EADS Deutschland, Spain’s EADS Casa, BAE Systems and Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica), Sweden’s Saab and France’s Dassault, among others.