Financial Times - EU sets timetable for tighter military co-ordination
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June 23, 2017. Arthur Beesley.
Pesco proposal draws on previously unused powers of Lisbon treaty.
EU leaders have taken fresh steps to intensify defence co-ordination, setting an ambitious schedule to settle on a plan to strengthen and expand the limited range of common military activities they undertake within the bloc.
“We have made remarkable progress. Each and every one remarked that building up better structure is not against Nato but to complement Nato structures,” Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said at the summit.
The drive to boost the EU’s defence activities has been spurred by impending exit from the bloc of the UK, which has long opposed closer military integration as a wasteful duplication of Nato activities.
The latest proposal draws on previously unused treaty powers — a system known as Pesco that Jean-Claude Juncker, chief of the European Commission, has described as the “sleeping princess” of Europe’s Lisbon treaty.
“Now the princess is waking,” Mr Juncker said at the European summit in Brussels.
Military co-ordination within the bloc has proven difficult, although EU leaders recognise the need to boost common security and defence systems as threats multiply from terrorist groups, regional conflicts and Russia’s increased belligerence.
Although Brussels has been urging member states to allow the bloc to “act alone” in its own defence, the EU has so far taken only halting steps to intensify military co-ordination.
At the summit EU leaders formally agreed on the need to launch an “inclusive and ambitious” Pesco, saying they will settle within three months on a common list of criteria and binding defence commitments. Still, the scope and scale of the initiative remains to be determined by member states.
In a communiqué on Thursday, EU leaders said the Pesco plan should set a precise timetable to enable member states that want to move ahead with the plan “to notify their intentions and participate without delay”.
All member states will be invited to join, said Donald Tusk, president of the European Council. “It is a historic step, because such co-operation will allow the EU to move towards deeper integration in defence,” Mr Tusk added.
The chief sponsors of the drive to boost EU military co-ordination are France and Germany, whose aim is to rally the bloc after Brexit and fortify its defences. They have also backed the European Commission’s proposals to set up an EU fund for common investment in expensive military kit.
Ms Merkel recently said Europe could no longer count on the US as a reliable partner. Amid divisions over defence spending with Donald Trump, the US president, she has called on Europeans to pay more attention to their own interests.
At the summit the leaders settled on separate measures to make it easier to make use of rapid-response military deployments known as EU battle groups that have never been sent into action despite being in training for years.
The leaders said the funding of any deployment of battle groups “should be borne as a common cost” by member states, spreading the burden in a bid to facilitate their use.
The EU and Nato, which have 22 common member states, have resolved in 2016 to deepen co-operation between the two organisations, with the EU emphasising that its defence efforts were designed to complement Nato activities.
Member states agreed in March to set up an EU command for military training missions, whose responsibilities are restricted to non-lethal activities. Diplomats expect that the new command to be given “executive” powers to direct and arm missions with lethal powers once the UK leaves the bloc.
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