OCCAR was founded ten years ago in Strasbourg on 12 November 1996 by France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Here are just some of the media headlines that followed over the next few days: ‘Europe is building its defence step by step’ (Le Monde), ‘Europe launches the Armaments agency’ (Libération), ‘Birth of the European Armaments Agency’ (Le Bulletin quotidien), ‘Armaments: the United Kingdom and Italy join the Germany-France pairing’ (AFP), ‘Armaments: an agency for Europe’ (Le Figaro).

A brief history of OCCAR: a Franco-German initiative in 1993; the United Kingdom and Italy sign up in 1996. It is often believed today that the creation of OCCAR was the result of an original initiative by all four nations represented in Strasbourg. The initial steps were actually taken by France and Germany in December 1993 at a Franco-German summit. The respective national armaments directors of the time played a decisive role in this project: Henri Conze, Delegate General for Armaments (DGA) since 24 May 1993 and Georg Schönbohm, Secretary of State for Defence.

It was not until the spring of 1996 that the United Kingdom and Italy announced their intention to join. As Franco-German discussions were then at an advanced stage and the two founder nations did not want to delay the creation of OCCAR, this enlargement was the subject of intense negotiations before agreement was reached, just prior to the Franco-German summit at the end of 1996. The detailed history can be described in three episodes: the Franco-German period; the arrival of the United Kingdom and Italy; the four-way agreement, dictated by the Franco-German timetable.