Invest in the aircraft of tomorrow

The Forth Generation Rafale M

My article Invest in the aircraft of tomorrow appeared yesterday in The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle
Here is the link...

Mr Modi has developed a rapport with Mr Macron and Ms Merkel; it would make economic and strategic sense for India to partner Europe.

On July 13, a day before Bastille Day, during a press conference jointly addressed by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris, the two nations announced their intention to cooperate for the development of a future combat aircraft, which could one day replace the Rafale of Dassault Aviations and the Eurofighter/Typhoon.
Mr Macron asserted that “road maps” and joint investment opportunities in 18 areas were discussed with Ms Merkel; it included a fifth-generation fighter plane.
The young French President added that this would help reduce duplication and enable the European nations to more effectively pursue export opportunities.
Apart from the fighter plane, European nations have agreed to further develop the Airbus Helicopters Tiger attack rotorcraft and complete work on a medium-altitude, long-endurance “Eurodrone” unmanned vehicle as well as military satellites.
Mr Macron said: “It is a deep revolution — but we are not scared of revolutions when they are conducted in peaceful manner.”
According to Flight Global, the French President described the venture as part of a broader integration of several European partners for the development, deployment and export of combat equipment.
Airbus Defence and Space, which works on the Eurofighter, welcomed the announcement “to jointly develop a next-generation fighter jet”. A communiqué added: “Strengthening the Franco-German axis will help to safeguard critically needed European defence capabilities in the future.”
On June 9, Fernando Alonso, the head of Airbus Group’s military aircraft division had affirmed: “We have to do this in Europe. There’s no place to do two or three different systems.”
It would not be the first time that Europeans try to collaborate in the field of defence R&D and production, though the outcome has not always been up to the mark.
Soon after the World War II, a man had a revolutionary proposal: to unite the enemies of yesterday, France and Germany, by bringing them to work together. Jean Monnet, the father of Europe wrote: “the course of events must be altered. To do this, men’s attitudes must be changed. Words are not enough.” Monnet thought that since Germany and France had to rebuild their industry, it was bound to revive the old rivalry. Monnet’s idea was to reverse the problem — what had been the seed of war must become the seed of unity — his proposal was therefore to create a high authority which could manage the resources in coal and steel for both nations. This was the birth of the European Coal and Steel Community, the embryo of the European Economic Community (EEC) and later the European Union.
But it is not always easy. Francisco Duarte in The Inquisitr quotes the case of the joint design for the main battle tank for the France and German armies in 1957. He says: “After some years of development and construction of opposing prototypes, one of the German proposals was chosen. Even before the decision was taken, relations started to go sour with other Nato partners, which, among other developments, meant a split in the project for a European tank. The Germans would eventually create the Leopard 1, while the French pursued their own concepts, leading to the unveiling of the AMX-30.”
Hopefully it will be different this time. More recently, we have the example of the UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) developed by Dassault Aviation of France as the prime contractor.
The nEUROn European drone project perfectly reflects the original European “spirit” though ironically, Germany is not directly associated. Six European countries have decided to build an UCAV as a technology demonstrator.
This European programme has been designed to pool the skills and know-how of Alenia Aermacchi (Italy), Saab (Sweden), EADS-CASA (Spain), HAI (Greece), RUAG (Switzerland) and Thales (France) to produce the drone of the future.
With a length of 10 metres, a wingspan of 12.5 metres and an empty weight of five tonnes, the aircraft is powered by a Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour engine.
It was French President Jacques Chirac who unveiled the Dassault-led nEUROn project in June 2005; it marked the beginning of the six-nation research programme to build a technical demonstrator.
The project crossed a major milestone on December 2012 when the UCAV had its first successful flight from Istres airbase, near Marseille in South France.
Flight trials in France to evaluate its stealth characteristics were successfully completed in March 2015. It was followed by sensor evaluation trials in Italy, which were completed on August 2015. In July 2016, extensive stealth and detection tests were conducted with the nEUROn and the Charles de Gaulle carrier group.
In November 2014, a two-year feasibility study was started by the French and British governments. It could lead to a programme combining the experience of the BAE Systems Taranis and nEUROn programs into a Future Combat Air System.
One of the most interesting aspects of the project is the close collaboration between different European partners.
Monnet had prophesied: “Europe will be built through concrete realisations, creating at first a de facto solidarity.” For him, it was essential to “develop habits of cooperation among nations which had so far only known relationships based on power”.
Dassault Aviation is the master builder, responsible for the overall architecture and design, flight control system, global testing (static and flight), elements of stealth, final assembly, integration of systems and testing.
NEUROn is undoubtedly an extraordinary technological challenge for the European companies involved.
But let us come back to the development of a fifth-generation combat aircraft. India has tried to work with the Russians. The project is not doing well.
Franz-Stefan Gady wrote in the Diplomat an article entitled: “India, Russia 5th Generation Fighter Jet Deal is Lost”: “The transfer of sensitive defence technology from Russia to India has been one of the most contentious issues between the two sides right from the start.”
Gady commented: “India wants a guarantee that it will be able to upgrade the fighter jet in the future without Russian support, which would require Moscow sharing source codes (sensitive computer code that controls the fighter jet’s various systems — the key to an aircraft’s electronic brains).”
Recently, Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec, the Russian state corporation which develops and promotes hi-tech defence and civilian products worldwide refused to speak about the future aircraft, which was not mentioned in the Saint Petersburg Declaration (“A vision for the 21st century”), when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Russia in early June.
Delays are said to have been caused because New Delhi and Moscow disagree on over many fundamental aspects such as work and cost share, aircraft technology or numbers of aircraft to be ordered by India.
A question, though presently theoretical, could be raised, why can’t India join the European project? Europe will require a market for its fifth generation aircraft; in the coming decades, India will need hundreds of planes, having to cope with two fronts.
Mr Modi has developed an excellent rapport with Mr Macron and Ms Merkel; it would make economic and strategic sense for India to partner Europe. It could be good for the European industries as well, as they would get crucial financial support and a market.
It is worth thinking about such far-away possibility; it could be a win-win deal for India too as Delhi would be involved in the project from the conception.

Claude Arpi
The writer is based in South India for the past 40 years. He writes on India, China, Tibet and Indo-French relations.
http://www.asianage.com/opinion/oped/290717/invest-in-the-aircraft-of-tomorrow.html
Mr Modi has developed a rapport with Mr Macron and Ms Merkel; it would make economic and strategic sense for India to partner Europe.
Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft (Photo: Youtube screengrab)
On July 13, a day before Bastille Day, during a press conference jointly addressed by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris, the two nations announced their intention to cooperate for the development of a future combat aircraft, which could one day replace the Rafale of Dassault Aviations and the Eurofighter/Typhoon.
Mr Macron asserted that “road maps” and joint investment opportunities in 18 areas were discussed with Ms Merkel; it included a fifth-generation fighter plane.
The young French President added that this would help reduce duplication and enable the European nations to more effectively pursue export opportunities.
Apart from the fighter plane, European nations have agreed to further develop the Airbus Helicopters Tiger attack rotorcraft and complete work on a medium-altitude, long-endurance “Eurodrone” unmanned vehicle as well as military satellites.
Mr Macron said: “It is a deep revolution — but we are not scared of revolutions when they are conducted in peaceful manner.”
According to Flight Global, the French President described the venture as part of a broader integration of several European partners for the development, deployment and export of combat equipment.
Airbus Defence and Space, which works on the Eurofighter, welcomed the announcement “to jointly develop a next-generation fighter jet”. A communiqué added: “Strengthening the Franco-German axis will help to safeguard critically needed European defence capabilities in the future.”
On June 9, Fernando Alonso, the head of Airbus Group’s military aircraft division had affirmed: “We have to do this in Europe. There’s no place to do two or three different systems.”
It would not be the first time that Europeans try to collaborate in the field of defence R&D and production, though the outcome has not always been up to the mark.
Soon after the World War II, a man had a revolutionary proposal: to unite the enemies of yesterday, France and Germany, by bringing them to work together. Jean Monnet, the father of Europe wrote: “the course of events must be altered. To do this, men’s attitudes must be changed. Words are not enough.” Monnet thought that since Germany and France had to rebuild their industry, it was bound to revive the old rivalry. Monnet’s idea was to reverse the problem — what had been the seed of war must become the seed of unity — his proposal was therefore to create a high authority which could manage the resources in coal and steel for both nations. This was the birth of the European Coal and Steel Community, the embryo of the European Economic Community (EEC) and later the European Union.
But it is not always easy. Francisco Duarte in The Inquisitr quotes the case of the joint design for the main battle tank for the France and German armies in 1957. He says: “After some years of development and construction of opposing prototypes, one of the German proposals was chosen. Even before the decision was taken, relations started to go sour with other Nato partners, which, among other developments, meant a split in the project for a European tank. The Germans would eventually create the Leopard 1, while the French pursued their own concepts, leading to the unveiling of the AMX-30.”
Hopefully it will be different this time. More recently, we have the example of the UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) developed by Dassault Aviation of France as the prime contractor.
The nEUROn European drone project perfectly reflects the original European “spirit” though ironically, Germany is not directly associated. Six European countries have decided to build an UCAV as a technology demonstrator.
This European programme has been designed to pool the skills and know-how of Alenia Aermacchi (Italy), Saab (Sweden), EADS-CASA (Spain), HAI (Greece), RUAG (Switzerland) and Thales (France) to produce the drone of the future.
With a length of 10 metres, a wingspan of 12.5 metres and an empty weight of five tonnes, the aircraft is powered by a Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour engine.
It was French President Jacques Chirac who unveiled the Dassault-led nEUROn project in June 2005; it marked the beginning of the six-nation research programme to build a technical demonstrator.
The project crossed a major milestone on December 2012 when the UCAV had its first successful flight from Istres airbase, near Marseille in South France.
Flight trials in France to evaluate its stealth characteristics were successfully completed in March 2015. It was followed by sensor evaluation trials in Italy, which were completed on August 2015. In July 2016, extensive stealth and detection tests were conducted with the nEUROn and the Charles de Gaulle carrier group.
In November 2014, a two-year feasibility study was started by the French and British governments. It could lead to a programme combining the experience of the BAE Systems Taranis and nEUROn programs into a Future Combat Air System.
One of the most interesting aspects of the project is the close collaboration between different European partners.
Monnet had prophesied: “Europe will be built through concrete realisations, creating at first a de facto solidarity.” For him, it was essential to “develop habits of cooperation among nations which had so far only known relationships based on power”.
Dassault Aviation is the master builder, responsible for the overall architecture and design, flight control system, global testing (static and flight), elements of stealth, final assembly, integration of systems and testing.
NEUROn is undoubtedly an extraordinary technological challenge for the European companies involved.
But let us come back to the development of a fifth-generation combat aircraft. India has tried to work with the Russians. The project is not doing well.
Franz-Stefan Gady wrote in the Diplomat an article entitled: “India, Russia 5th Generation Fighter Jet Deal is Lost”: “The transfer of sensitive defence technology from Russia to India has been one of the most contentious issues between the two sides right from the start.”
Gady commented: “India wants a guarantee that it will be able to upgrade the fighter jet in the future without Russian support, which would require Moscow sharing source codes (sensitive computer code that controls the fighter jet’s various systems — the key to an aircraft’s electronic brains).”
Recently, Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec, the Russian state corporation which develops and promotes hi-tech defence and civilian products worldwide refused to speak about the future aircraft, which was not mentioned in the Saint Petersburg Declaration (“A vision for the 21st century”), when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Russia in early June.
Delays are said to have been caused because New Delhi and Moscow disagree on over many fundamental aspects such as work and cost share, aircraft technology or numbers of aircraft to be ordered by India.
A question, though presently theoretical, could be raised, why can’t India join the European project? Europe will require a market for its fifth generation aircraft; in the coming decades, India will need hundreds of planes, having to cope with two fronts.
Mr Modi has developed an excellent rapport with Mr Macron and Ms Merkel; it would make economic and strategic sense for India to partner Europe. It could be good for the European industries as well, as they would get crucial financial support and a market.
It is worth thinking about such far-away possibility; it could be a win-win deal for India too as Delhi would be involved in the project from the conception.

Brexit and Euro

Very few events have triggered such a flood of comments as the vote for the Brexit in UK.
For some, it was suddenly as if the world had ended; though it may not be, it could be the last journey of an empire on which the sun used to never set.
Cartoonists have also tried to capture the folly of the Brexit. One of the most telling caricatures I came across was by Plantu in Le Monde.
One sees Sigmund Freud seating near a patient lying on the Union Jack on a sofa. Obviously the person being psychoanalyzed represents the British voter, who keeps repeating: “In, out, in, out, in, out, in…”. Near a frustrated, sweating, depressed Freud stands a young lady with a cap on which one reads ‘Europa’. The great psy says: “I can’t take it anymore. How have you managed to bear with this?”
It symbolizes the decade-old love-hate of the British for the European Union.

Immediately after WWII, Jean Monnet, the father of Europe and his German colleagues believed that the surest way to avoid a new conflict was to ‘share’ the very same materials which had in the past divided the two nations. Monnet took the initiative: “Coal and steel were at once the key to economic power and the raw materials for forging weapons of war… To pool them across frontiers would reduce their malign prestige and turn them instead into a guarantee of peace.”
As both Germany and France had to rebuild their industries, a supranational High Authority would be created to manage the resources in coal and steel for both nations. Monnet convinced Robert Schumann, the French Foreign Minister and the German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer and hence the embryo of Europe was born. A treaty was signed in Paris in 1951 establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.
A close partnership between the enemies of yesterday was set in motion, though (or because) no ‘ideology’ was involved.
Six years later, six European states (France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) decided to focus their energies on integration and union. Europe was born on March 25, 1957, with the Treaty of Rome. The main object of the Treaty signed in the Italian capital, was to set up a customs union and a common market between the member states.
When the British put their candidature in 1961, many started questioning their entry into the Common Market. Charles de Gaulle was one of them.
Two years later, during a press conference, after mentioning that London had refused to participate in the first experience, the general explained that the character of the British nation was “insular, turned towards the sea” and the nation had always been linked “through exchanges, markets, supplies to far-away countries”, not with Europe. He added that the “nature, structure, situation of England are deeply different from the ones of the continental people”. De Gaulle had a point.
Eventually, Great Britain was admitted in the Union in 1973, but doubts persisted in London, as the cartoon shows.
Coinciding with the Brexit, a second major event made the headlines during the last couple of weeks: the Euro2016 Football Cup.
While politicians and ‘experts’ discussed the implications of UK leaving the EU, lakhs of enthusiasts supporting one of the 24 ‘national’ teams poured into the main cities of France.
One could suddenly see the true diversity of Europe. From the organized Russian ‘breakers’ who destroyed the centre of Marseille on the first day, to the British hooligans, the Albanians, the Polish, the Scots or the sweet ‘green army’ of Ireland, who got the Golden Medal from the City of Paris for their exemplary behavior; all were Europeans.
Euro2016 was indeed a showcase of Europe in its diversity.
But to build a political Union on this diversity is not an easy proposal. Today’s Europe is not perfect, far from it. The babudom of Brussels has taken colossal size and power, but globalization cannot be wished away, hence the need for unity.
Take the case of Iceland, a small island with a population of just 319,756 people. The ‘Vikings’ managed to send England packing in the Euro pre-quarter final.
Iceland has suffered more than anybody else when the global financial crisis hit the island nation in 2008. Its currency crashed, unemployment soared and the stock market was wiped out. Unlike other European economies, the Reykjavik government let its three major banks fail and went after the bankers; even Prime Minister Geir Haarde was put on trial.
Today, Iceland is slowly recovering, but does not want to join the EU anymore. Icelandic President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson stated that the Brixit is good news for Icelanders as it may give them an opportunity to work together with other countries in the North-Atlantic. “Iceland and Norway will now, in a totally new way, become participants in negotiations that must take place between the EU and the UK and the EU and member states of the European Economic Area (EEA) with this new triangle of countries in the North Atlantic.”
It may work, who knows?
Jean Monnet wrote once: “Have I said clearly enough that the Community we have created is not an end in itself? It is a process of change, continuing that same process which in an earlier period of history produced our national forms of life.”
The events of the last weeks demonstrate the difficulty to ‘unite’ while keeping the identity of each participant alive, but Europe is a ‘process’, not the end; it is where the British got it wrong.

French connection or a Greek tragedy?

My article French connection or a Greek tragedy? was published in The Pioneer on July 19.

Hit by an economic slowdown, India has to choose between tough decisions to mend the situation or simply dawdle in misplaced hope and worsen the crisis. Europe provides a lesson for our policy-makers.

The refrain is, ‘Ça va mal’ (it’s bad). This is something that you can often hear in France these days.
Even the serious New York Times admitted: “In France, austerity reaches Government cars and wine”, signs for the ‘common Frenchman’ that the situation is not rosy.
No more glamorous ‘bling-bling’ in the Elysée Palace, like in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s days!
Pointing to the hungry crowds of aam aadmis, the last Queen of France Marie Antoinette would have said: “Give them brioche, if they don’t have bread”. Did she really say it? The slogan nevertheless remains the hallmark of the Ancient Regime.
Today, the ‘new regime’ of President François Hollande has decided to impose a ‘sober’ regime to give bread to all.
It is even rumoured that Champagne, the sacrosanct beverage to celebrate important Republican occasions, will be replaced by Muscadet, a white French wine produced in the Pays de Loire region. C’est la vie!
The Hollande presidency will certainly lack Sarkozy’s glamour.
It started when Mr Hollande left his Paris residence for the swearing-in ceremony at the Elysée Palace. Instead of a long convoy with tens of luxurious cars, blaring sirens and a motorcade opening the road, Mr Hollande had a mini convoy which stopped at the red lights in Paris.
The cartoonists loved the story; the next day Mr Hollande was shown on cartoons arriving at his new residence, driving a ‘deux-cheveaux’, the emblematic 1950’s Citroen ‘car of the people’.
This made me dream: When the Indian Prime Minister recently visited Puducherry (where I live), the traffic was blocked for  nearly two days, creating an incredible nuisance to the general public. But our leaders in India are not bothered about these ‘details’.
Today in France, thanks to the economic crisis, Ministers of State no longer have bodyguards, even the staff in charge of the President’s security has been reduced by a third.
Another sign of the ‘bad’ times: Mr Hollande used the Thalis, the fast train between Paris and Brussels, to attend a meeting of the European Union’s Heads of State. His Ministers are also strongly advised to use the train, whenever it is possible. The well-equipped presidential jet (at one time nick-named, Sarko One, in comparison to the Air Force One), will now often remain parked on the tarmac of an Air Force base near Paris.
The President has also stopped using the fancy Presidential Citroen C6; he drives in a far cheaper Citroen DS5 diesel hybrid. He has even reduced the number of his official drivers from three to two.
Cecile Duflot, the Minister for Environment, has ordered four ‘official’ bicycles for her and her staff. It is difficult to imagine the  Indian Union Minister for Environment and Forests moving around on an electric bike in Delhi. One can always argue that the roads are more dangerous in India. It is true.
On June 28, the French Prime Minister’s Office published a communique on the ‘budget framework’: The Government staff will have to be reduced by 2.5 per cent per year from 2013 to 2015. Only four priority Ministries are exempted (education, police, justice and paramilitary forces).
In 2013, general expenses of the ministries (staff quarters, vehicles, equipment etc) will be reduced by seven per cent in comparison to the 2012’s budget, then four per cent in 2014 and 2015. It practically means a cut of 19 billons Euros for 2012.
The French will obviously grumble confronted with such a tough situation. In any case, most surveys rate the descendants of the Gaulish tribes as the greatest grumblers in the world. The situation is however quite alarming.
In India, some will say, it is their Karma; the colonisers pay today for exploiting Africa or Asia in the past. The messy economic situation in India is also blamed on the present predicament in Europe; even the Indian Prime Minister recently declared: “The world is passing through troubled times. The financial and economic crisis that has gripped Europe in recent years has many important lessons and implications for us.”
When he attended the G-20 in Mexico, Mr Manmohan Singh linked the downfall of the rupees and India’s economic slowdown to the difficulties in Europe.
This is wrong. Europe is in the sluggishness mostly due to mismanaged fiscal policies, simply spending more than it earned. Is India doing differently?
Pierre Sellal, the French Foreign Secretary (Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) paid a discreet visit to Delhi at the time of the G-20 meet.
In a speech organised by the ORF Foundation, he explained: “All in all, despite the scale of the challenges it was facing, the eurozone was able to take the required decisions on fiscal discipline to address the difficulties experienced by some of its members and to avert contagion and a negative impact on world growth.”
Take another example. Mr Hollande has cut the salaries of his Ministers by 30 per cent; including his own (from $26,000 to $18,000 per month). It might be laughable, but it is a mathematical certitude that the present ‘crisis’ can only be solved by a better fiscal discipline; whether it is in Europe, in America or India.
Laurence Parisot, the boss of the MEDEF, the main French federation of industries however fears ‘a programmed strangulation’. It is a difficult dilemma.
India has not yet faced these thorny questions, though Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services recently downgraded India to a poor ‘BBB’. A report titled “Will India Be the First BRIC Fallen Angel?” was dismissed by the then Finance Minister.
According to Standard & Poor’s, India could lose its ‘investment grade’ status because of a “divided leadership at the Centre unable to usher economic reforms to spur growth and boost investments”. The agency added that the Prime Minister often appears “to have limited ability to influence his Cabinet colleagues and proceed with liberalisation policies”.
Whether the new Finance Minister is able to unleash ‘animal spirits’ is to be seen. The fact, however, remains that India will have to do some efforts to rein in its fiscal deficit. It is of course difficult to conceive today a 30 per cent cut in the MPs’ and MLAs’ salaries as it has been done in France (although surveys show that amongst 2,322 out of 4,835 MPs/MLAs, 48 per cent are crorepatis), Government wastage could certainly be looked into (and will be have to be looked into).
This means that the ‘Centre’s allocations’ to unruly and greedy regional satraps will have eventually to be reduced.
In the years to come, no country, no region will escape a better management of the ‘collective’ assets of the nation or region.
It is better to start early than late in the day, like Greece.

Europe is trembling

Two articles points to the same threat: the economic power of China. 

In India first: a top nuclear scientist expressed concern over India's private sector placing large-scale orders to import power plant equipment from China. He said that it is 'disturbing'. 

Mr. MR Srinivasan, former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy explained: "When Chinese Prime Minister came (to India recently), something like 30,000 mw to 40,000 mw of power plants have been ordered from China by the Indian private sector. It's a disturbing thing".
He pointed out that India actually started making power plant equipment before China but China has grown in the field rapidly driven by the state and it has so much capacity now that it can take big orders and "beat everybody in competition".
"We don't want to electrify this country based on Chinese equipment", he said, adding, this issue is worth pondering.

Then in Europe, voices are asking some sort of regulation to monitor the Chinese economic take-overs.

Despite the so-called 'Peaceful Rise of China', these threat perceptions are bound to grow during the coming year.

EU industry chief voices need to block Chinese takeovers
ANDREW WILLIS
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europe should establish a new authority with powers to block foreign takeovers of strategic European businesses, EU industry commissioner Antonio Tajani has argued.
The authority is particularly necessary as Chinese companies increasingly look to grow their overseas investments, the Italian politician said in an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt on Monday (27 December).
"Chinese companies have the means to buy more and more European enterprises with key technologies in important sectors," remarked Mr Tajani.
"It is a question of investments but behind that there is also a strategic policy, to which Europe should respond politically," he said.
As a result, Europe should establish "an authority tasked with examining foreign investments in Europe" using the the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US as a model.
Under the proposal, the European authority would determine "if the acquisition (of a company) with European know-how by a private or public foreign company represented a danger or not."
A number of European and American firms have been frustrated in recent years by the speed at which their Chinese competitors have acquired new technologies developed outside the Middle Kingdom.
For its part, China has gradually sought to remove its own restrictions on foreign investment but considerable limitations still apply.
Reacting to the EU suggestion for a new authority, German economy minister Rainer Bruederle warned against overly quick decisions.
"Of course one can have an evaluation procedure taking into account security and public order concerns. But we shouldn't take hasty actions," Mr Bruederle told the Handelsblatt paper on Tuesday.
"Europe profits from the openness of its markets and offers attractive conditions for foreign investors," he added.

The Long Arms of the Mandarins

The European leaders speak big about the Human Rights (see Ms Viviane Reding in the case of the Romas' expulsion from France) but when it comes to the Middle Kingdom, they fall silent. They are aware who is powerful and who is not.
Read this article, you won't believe it, but it is the sad truth.


Chinese reporter tells story of 'EU censorship'
ANDREW RETTMAN AND ANDREW WILLIS
October 11, 2010
The EU Observer
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - One of the reporters temporarily excluded from the China-EU summit last week has talked to EUobserver about his "surprise" at facing Chinese-style censorship in the bosom of the European Union.
Lixin Yang, who has full press accreditation in the EU institutions in Brussels, was first denied entry when he and three colleagues arrived at the metal detectors at the summit venue, the EU Council's Justus Lipsius building, at 2pm local time last Wednesday (6 October). He works for the government-critical media The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television, which have links to the repressed Falun Gong movement.
He returned at 4pm and was blocked again. Fellow reporters from Associated Press and Reuters interjected on his behalf. A senior Council security officer arrived and Mr Yang was allowed to proceed. The officer refused to say who had ordered him to be kept out.
An hour and a half later the Council announced that the post-summit press conference was cancelled.
"I asked the Council press person why I was being blocked and he told me it was for security reasons," Mr Lixin recalled. "My colleagues had similar problems and one of them took camera footage of the Council's press team talking to Chinese officials. It was very clear that the Council staff had been given a blacklist of names."
"The Chinese impose media censorship everywhere they go. But what surprised me was that it was in the Council, an EU building, and that the Council staff wouldn't admit it. It's censorship imposed from authoritarian regimes on the EU. What does this mean for the EU-China 'strategic' relationship?"
The Brussels-based International Press Association (API) later reported that Council officials had initially excluded the reporters because China said they posed a security threat. It added that China cancelled the press conference when it learned that they had been let through. API criticised EU leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso for also canceling their press appearance in deference to the Chinese side.
The episode caused discomfort for European Commission officials at their regular press briefing on Friday.
A spokesman initially read out a statement that the China-EU press event was cancelled due to "scheduling problems." Following a series of questions by API, commission officials then asked the cameras to be switched off and, in an off-the-record session, corroborated API's account and admitted that the whole incident was "embarrassing" for the EU.
EU chiefs the same day had to handle another tricky development when the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its 2010 peace prize to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
News of the Nobel award was heavily censored inside China. Chinese authorities reportedly blocked links to foreign news websites, deleted Mr Liu's name from Twitter feeds and blanked out CNN and BBC World bulletins on TV.
The strongest statement of EU support came from foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton. Ms Ashton did not explicitly call for Mr Liu's release but said: "I hope he will be able to receive his prize in person." Mr Barroso said only that the Nobel decision "is a strong message of support to all those around the world who ... are struggling for freedom and human rights." Mr Van Rompuy said nothing.
China is the EU's second largest trading partner after the US and bought €82 billion worth of EU products last year.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao in a show of economic strength last week visited Greece, Italy and Turkey as well as Belgium. He promised to buy Greek government bonds as soon as they came up for sale, signed €2.25 billion of new investments in the Italian energy and telecommunications sectors and promised to take part in a massive railway project in Turkey.