77 / 150
THE DEFENCE POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF A GLOBAL STRATEGY ON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY
77
However, the biggest innovation in the
Treaty of Lisbon in the area of defence policy
was the mutual assistance clause, which is at
the core of the Defensive Alliance and imposes
a mutual defence commitment that goes be-
yond article 5 of the NATO Treaty, stipulating in
article 42.7 that “If a member state is the victim
of armed aggression on its territory, the other
member states shall have towards it an obliga-
tion of aid and assistance by all the means in
their power”.
At the same time, to make the Defensive
Alliance credible, the Treaty of Lisbon allowed
for the possibility of creating a permanent rapid
intervention force to provide an immediate re-
sponse to aggression. This took the form of
Permanent Structured Cooperation, as de-
scribed in art. 42.6 TEU, which established that
“those member states whose military capabili-
ties fulfil higher criteria and which have made
more binding commitments to one another in
this area with a view to the most demanding
missions shall establish Permanent Structured
Cooperation within the Union framework”. In
other words, it creates the possibility that a
group of States may establish such cooperation
without the need for unanimous agreement.
As a result, since December 2009 – the date
when the Treaty of the European Union came
into force – there has been a defensive alliance
between the members of the EU, providing a
solid legal basis for implementing a European
defence policy. However, this policy has not ac-
tually been implemented because (for a variety
of reasons) it is only very recently that the provi-
sions of the Treaty of Lisbon have actually been
put into practice.
The development of a European defence
policy
In the last few years, and in particular since
2014, events have intensified the need to imple-
ment a European defence policy.
The deterioration in the security situation of
the EU since 2014
The worsening security and defence situation,
particularly on the EU’s eastern and southern
borders, has been apparent for some time, and
this problem has gradually become worse since
2014, with the growth of ISIS (so-called Islamic
State) and the use of force by Russia, in particu-
lar with regard to the annexation of Crimea.
Places where the new risks and threats are at
their most serious include: eastern Ukraine;
Syria and Iraq, with the escalation of ISIS; the
crisis in Libya; terrorist threats in Africa (particu-
larly in the Sahel, Libya and the Horn of Africa
and – more recently – acts of piracy in the Gulf
of Guinea).
The objective of the Juncker Commission: to
create a more powerful global player
The European elections of 2014 represented a
new start (as reflected in the title of the
European Commission programme) and, in ac-
cordance with article 17.7 TEU, for the first time
the membership of the Commission itself re-
flects the election results. As a result, the new
Commission enjoys a greater level of legitimacy
than its predecessors.
With respect to defence policy, the
Commission programme makes reference to
the need to strengthen integrated defence