Europe's defence project – time for transatlantic rearrangement

Abstract

The idea that the European Union needs a credible military capability for autonomous action is undisputed as it lies in the logic of European integration. Still the discrepancy between EU ambitions and reality is striking: the EU has become a key security policy actor but not in the military field. The fundamental changes of the strategic landscape caused by Russia's aggression in Eastern Europe and the turmoil in the Middle East provide an opportunity to re-arrange European defence capabilities in a true Euro-Atlantic manner. Instead of aspiring military capacities outside of NATO, the EU should organize its military forces within NATO – as it did before 1998 with its European Security and Defence Identity (ESDI). Such an arrangement would permit the EU to act autonomously but at the same time to profit from NATO's experience as the most successful military alliance in history. Moreover, it would permit the EU to further evolve its military integration along the lines of its various pooling and sharing activities.