Europe's Strategic Future: From Crisis to Coherence? by Sarah Raine

Author:Sarah Raine [Raine, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, Political Freedom, Security (National & International), General
ISBN: 9781000733501
Google: 2VGoDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 51295404
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

New momentum … but to what effect?

The European Commission has been as clear on EU ambitions to ensure, for example, that the EU force catalogue has a ‘full-spectrum of land, air, space and maritime capabilities’ as it has been unclear on how to achieve them.12 But the emerging consensus among EU policymakers is that the Union must play a role, for the sake of its own credibility if nothing else, in delivering a ‘Europe that protects, empowers, and defends’ (the title of the commission’s 2017 Work Programme).

Four days after the UK’s Brexit vote, the French and German foreign ministers released the first of two papers arguing that the time was ripe for the EU again to try to move towards ‘a comprehensive, realistic and credible Defence in the European Union’. The paper called for ‘concrete action plans on the short term’ to support CSDP military operations, develop European military capabilities and sponsor European defence cooperation.13 In the months that followed, the EU (and NATO) agreed a three-pronged defence ‘winter package’.

Firstly, a Security and Defence Implementation Plan (SDIP) proposed by the EEAS outlined 13 specific policy actions to enhance defence cooperation in the EU. These included a voluntary Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) to synchronise defence planning cycles and capability plans in member states, and the proposal to activate PESCO in defence. The latter attracted particular excitement within EU institutions; Mogherini labelled PESCO’s launch ‘a historic day for European Defence’.14 Countries could now cooperate more closely on defence within the legal architecture of the EU and in ways potentially more binding than alternative routes, for example the EDA or NATO’s Framework Nation Concept.

The second prong, a Defence Action Plan proposed by the European Commission, introduced the commission as a significant sponsor of European defence integration, including through the establishment of the EDF. Alongside a ‘financial toolbox’ focused on support for small and mediumsized enterprises in particular, a ‘research window’ (with a projected annual budget of €500m from 2020) will support collaborative research in defence technology in priority areas identified by member states. A linked ‘capability window’ (with a budget of some €1bn a year from 2020) will also offer co-financing and commission support for the joint development and procurement of defence projects involving at least three companies from two member states. This funding is intended to be an incentive for a fivefold multiplying of national-level financing. If this happens, EU states will collectively be investing a further €5bn per year on defence capabilities from 2020. While this is hardly a revolutionary amount, it would turn the EU (and with it the commission) into a serious actor in the area of European defence research and development, particularly in contrast to NATO’s modest role in this area and its more short-to medium-term focus.

The final element of the winter package, an EU–NATO declaration, sought to re-energise long-standing efforts at closer coordination. Time-specific measures for closer cooperation on capabilities and shared threats were listed, including promoting ties on issues of cyber-defence research and technology innovation.

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