The European Union’s Engagement With Questions of Strategic Autonomy and Security: Do EU Courts Have a Role to Play?

Abstract

The EU started as a peace project to avoid armed conflicts between its Member States. It rapidly became a success story attracting new members. Its internal market and common policies, especially its trade and common agricultural policies, yielded a power of its own protecting the EU and its Member States in a turbulent world. This unique project relies on the rule of law and innovating legal concepts that both the EU and national courts protect. In the meantime the EU and the international context have changed. Gradually but surely, the EU is becoming more assertive to protect its interests by engaging in new policy areas, including security and defence. This article concerns the question as to whether this development affects the nature of judicial protection that EU courts are supposed to grant to states, legal and natural persons. Strategic autonomy – European security – EU defence policy – EU external competences – Court of Justice of the European Union