The European Defense Sector and EU Integration

Abstract

Common sense says the European integration process will not extend fully into the defense sector. This is because defense is a key pillar of state sovereignty, and the European Union (EU) has not done away with states. It is also assumed because integration within Europe is generally seen as an economic process, and defense is not something that is usually associated with the EU. In fact, as this paper shows, there is a significant level of intergovernmental cooperation already underway, and an integration process exists in the defense sector in Europe. Even at the political level, there are already meetings of EU defense ministers. So, in spite of a late start and the fact that the process may be irregular and slow, there is a path of defense integration that is already being traveled by the EU member states, a path that has been visible since 1999. The European integration process had security in mind at its inception—with its stated goal to end wars in Europe—by putting steel and coal (which were essential elements of arms fabrication at the time) under a supranational authority. Regulating these commodities was expected to defuse the prospect of another war between Germany and France. Security was again explicitly addressed when the member states of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) signed a treaty in 1952 establishing the European Defense Community (EDC). The EU pillar structure complicates the process of defense sector integration: the intergovernmental pillar is in place to deal with high politics 1 (Common Foreign and Security Policy, CFSP); and the Community pillar exists to deal with economics, or low politics, where, in some relevant ways, the wishes of individual governments may be overridden. The intergovernmental method has the virtue of searching for consensus, so decisions tend to be more robust, while the community and integration method allows for faster decision-making processes. However, the European integration process is far from creating a federation or a super-state, and this is even more the case in the defense sector. There is a “EuroGaullist” thesis in favor of integration and a strong Europe, in order to balance the remaining superpower (the United States). On the other hand, there is a Euro-Atlantic thesis aimed at creating a Europe that is credible in world affairs and capable of work-