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THE DEFENCE POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF A GLOBAL STRATEGY ON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY
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depends on a number of other decisions, the
most important of which is the implementation
of Permanent Structured Cooperation. Other
measures could include the following.
– A policy of communicating with European
citizens to raise awareness of the fact that
the EU is a defensive alliance, which means
that violation of any of the external borders
of the EU should be defended by all member
states with the same vigour that they would
apply to their own national defence.
– This entails activating Permanent Structured
Cooperation, as defined in article 42.6 TEU
and article 1 of Protocol 10, a commitment
that was adopted in Juncker’s “New Start for
Europe” and in various European Parliament
resolutions, in particular in the resolution of
16 March 2017, points 30 to 34. Point 30
“underlines the importance and necessity of
participation in permanent and efficient
structured cooperation by all member states
willing to advance their defence integration
to the highest level of ambition” and “be-
lieves that a permanent ‘European Integrated
Force’ (EIF) should be set up as a multina-
tional force”. It should also be noted, as
identified above, that the Treaty establishes
that Permanent Structured Cooperation is
for those States that wish to pursue it and
which satisfy certain military requirements
(in a manner similar to the convergence cri-
teria for Economic and Monetary Union).
This cooperation must serve both as a means
of managing foreign crises and for the pur-
poses of territorial defence.
– Creation of a Council of Defence Ministers,
chaired by the High Representative for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, with the
aim of coordinating implementation of the
CSDP and making it more effective. This
would involve separating it from the Foreign
Affairs Council, as there would be two sepa-
rate sets of policies – foreign policy and de-
fence policy – that should be viewed as such,
and which are treated separately in individu-
al member states.
– It is vital to establish a fully-fledged HQ, per-
haps building on the operational HQ estab-
lished on 6 March. This HQ should be fully
independent of NATO HQ as each organisa-
tion must be completely autonomous, not-
withstanding the need for compatibility and
their complementary nature. It is therefore
necessary to move beyond the “Berlin plus”
model.
– Continuing with cooperation in weaponry
and capacity, following the lead of the
European Defence Agency. It is important to
note, as the Agency’s Executive Director
Jorge Domecq explains, that “cooperation in
defence has made more progress over the
last twelve months then in the preceding ten
years”.
Although operational issues are not analysed
in this chapter, they are unquestionably of great
importance. By way of example, there is the
need to transfer NATO HQs – in particular the
two air control HQs, one of which is located in
Torrejón (near Madrid) – to the EU, as control
over the airspace of member states is currently
the responsibility of NATO.
The European Parliament resolution of 16
March 2017 on defence policy, already referred
to above, sets out a clear guide to the steps re-
quired to make such a policy operational within
the near future.
On 1 March 2017, the European Commission
published a White Paper on the Future of the
European Union, setting out five possible sce-
narios, and establishing a timetable for present-
ing five reports corresponding to each of these,
as a basis for analysis of the future of Europe.