EU military capability development and the EDA: ideas, interests and institutions

Abstract

Capabilities matter. If the European Union (EU) is to live up to its ambition ‘to assume increased responsibilities in the maintenance of international peace and security’ (Council of the EU 2012: 1), then capabilities, especially military capabilities, are vital. The need for reformed and improved armed forces was a fundamental rationale for the launch of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) in 1999 and the establishment of the European Defence Agency (EDA) in 2004. The EDA was set up to ‘to support the Member States and the Council in their effort to improve European defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the European Security and Defence Policy’ (Council of the EU 2004). This has been a significant challenge. The 27 EU Member States that participate in CSDP and the EDA (Denmark having an opt-out of CSDP) have an impressive array of military capabilities and, combined, spend close to €200 billion on defence annually. Hence, the EU as whole has the potential to be one of the leading military actors on the international stage. Nevertheless, the EU and its Member States have also struggled to overcome a number of significant problems that have prevented them from addressing the capability gaps (shortfalls) that prompted the launch of CSDP in 1999. Therefore, 15 years after the launch of CSDP and ten years since the EDA was established, the EU as a whole is still struggling to avail itself of the military capabilities required to undertake the full range of missions it has set itself and to fulfil its ambition to be a ‘strategic global actor’ and ‘security provider’. What is particularly worrying for the EU is that even with the pressures of deep budget cuts, increasing demand for the deployment of armed forces and the American ‘pivot’ to Asia, there is still only limited evidence of the coordination and cooperation so desired by the EU in the field of military capability development. This chapter will trace and critically analyse the definitions and development of EU military capabilities since CSDP’s launch in 1999 and, in particular, since the establishment of the EDA. It will do so in a three partstructure woven together by (1) the idea of the EU as a military actor; (2) the interests of the Member States; and (3) the institutions that shape CSDP. The first section briefly examines CSDP’s formative phase, 1999-2004, which saw the establishment of the overarching capability framework (the Helsinki Headline Goal) and the launch of the first CSDP operations. The second section, 2004-2009, analyses efforts to consolidate and revitalise EU capability development through the setting up of the EDA, the launch of a new Headline Goal 2010, including EU Battlegroups, and the 2008 French Presidency. The final section, 2009-2014, explores the various capability programmes and projects the EDA has established as well as the tensions between the parallel initiatives of the Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) to enhance capability development through the EDA, and the decentralised moves to enhance capabilities outside the CSDP framework. The principal problem confronting EU military capability development are the tensions between the ideas, interests and institutions working in and across the EU.