Exploring Existing and Potential Normative Solutions for an EU-Wide Legal Framework for Security of Information in the Context of Defence and Security Procurement

In the current international environment, an effective implementation of national security objectives is to a great extent dependant on the ability of national governments to ensure the highest possible degree of confidentiality to information used in strategical, as well as tactical decisions. Ensuring security of information has been a conundrum for all international organisations seeking to reach varying degrees of coordination, cooperation or integration. As the most ambitious of all, thus far, the EU has raised the bar even higher, especially in terms of desired cooperation in defence and security, where the drive for integrated defence procurement takes centre stage. Consequently, the issue of sharing (classified) information between the Member States and their relevant authorities is of fundamental importance. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to identify potential regulatory solutions for the management of classified information that would effectively contribute to the final objective of integrating defence and security procurement, as envisaged by the Defence Procurement Directive 2009/81/EC. An essential prerequisite in this respect is to determine what legal solutions could better serve this purpose, starting from normative instruments already implemented at various levels in the EU institutional mechanism. To this end, the paper is based on a two-phased theoretical approach: (1) the material segment – the characteristics of an effective integrated system for security of information (within the scope of defence procurement integration) and (2) the procedural segment – how to apply a potential solution at EU level (by what means). Ancillary research questions are aimed, first, at understanding the current state of play of the EU regulatory framework pertaining to handling classified information, in terms of granting security clearances to both individuals and legal persons (private, as well as public).