Titolo completo

The Future of European Defence: Industrial Ambition, Operational Constraints and Flexible Partnerships

The debate over the future of European defence has accelerated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While the EU seeks to become a real geopolitical actor, Brussels sits in a difficult position, having to reconcile loyalty to the Atlantic Alliance, cooperation with pivotal extra-EU partners such as the UK, and the pursuit of strategic autonomy. European defence has long developed along two strands: an operational-military pillar and an industrial-technological one. Today the latter appears the more active, through the European Defence Fund and the European Defence Industry Programme, while ReArm Europe supports the financing of national rearmament. These instruments, however, generate capabilities that remain largely national. Making them European is a largely unresolved issue, for which two routes are available: Treaty reform or the optimisation of the existing institutional architecture, each with its own constraints. This paper maps the current proposals for change, including the ambitious establishment of a European Security Council. It assesses how European governments could reconcile the EU’s industrial and financial activism with the Union’s institutional constraints, building defence formats flexible enough to function yet capable of making Europe more autonomous.

Paper produced in the framework of the project “L’Europa della difesa: cooperazione industriale, governance UE e pilastro europeo della Nato”.