THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Towards a new legislative term

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 62 over, given the urgency of having European strategic autonomy to protect the EU and its citizens. – Given the reinforcement of the CSDP, design mecha- nisms to strengthen democratic accountability, both to the European Parliament and to national parliaments. – Ensure the coordination of all the institutions, pro- grammes and projects developed and planned, so that they form a coherent policy; a concerted effort on the part of the Commission and the EEAS with the High Representative is key here. – Continue to consider NATO as the forum for deter- rence and the territorial defence of the EU, but ac- cept that in the long term the EU will have to shoul- der this responsibility itself. In order to do so, it needs competitive military capabilities, but also to develop normatively, institutionally and procedurally the mu- tual defence clause of Article 42.7 TEU. – Foster strategic planning and joint procurement of military materiel and equipment by the Member States, with the aim of achieving increasingly inter- operable European forces and economies of scale in defence investment. – Emphasise bolstering the creation of the institutional capabilities needed to launch joint operations draw- ing on interoperable national forces and develop them successfully: a sufficiently robust command and control capability, intelligence, logistics, administra- tion and common instruction. – Promote commitments among the Member States to guarantee long-term purchases from the European defence industry, as this will be the only incentive for it to make major investments aimed at expanding its production capacity, which is necessary now, to help Ukraine, and into the future. – Continue to support – both through existing instru- ments and through those planned in the Compass – research, technological innovation and competi- tiveness in the defence sector, as this the only way to ensure that the Member States continue to buy “European”. – Maintain appropriate cooperation with NATO, with- out losing our autonomy in decision-making, in order to avoid duplication and overlapping and to make the most of the different capabilities of the two organisations, but also be prepared in the event that a future US administration loses interest in the de- fence of Europe. References Acción Común 2004/551/PESC del Consejo, de 12 de julio de 2004, relativa a la creación de una Agen- cia Europea de Defensa (2004). Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 245 , de 17 de julio de 2004, 17-28. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/ES/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32004E0551 De Ayala, José Enrique (2022): Lecciones aprendidas de la guerra de Ucrania. En Diego López (Dir.) y María Pallares (Coord.), Informe sobre el Estado de la Unión Europea. Reformar Europa en tiempos de guerra , (pp. 75-87). Madrid: Lúa Ediciones. Biscop, S. (2023, Junio): European Defence in a New Geopolitical Environment . Egmont – Royal Institute for International Relations. Available at: https:// www.egmontinstitute.be/european-defence-in-a- new-geopolitical-environment/ Borrell, Josep (2023): The Year that War returned to Eu- rope. EU Foreign Policy in 2022. Luxemburgo: Publi- cations Office of the European Union. Borrell, Josep (2023): Annual Progress Report on the Implementation of the Strategic Compass for Secu- rity and Defence. Report of the High Representa- tive of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to the Council, March 2023 . European Un- ion External Action. Available at: https://www. eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/2023/ StrategicCompass_1stYear_Report.pdf Borrell, Josep (2023): Press conference – Foreign affairs-de- fence council, 23 de mayo de 2023.Available at: https:// newsroom.consilium.europa.eu/events/20230523- foreign-affairs-council-defence-may-2023. Comisión Europea (2016): Comunicación al Parlamento Europeo, al Consejo Europeo, al Consejo, al Comi- té Económico y Social y al Comité de las Regiones “Plan de Acción Europeo de la Defensa”, Bruselas, 30 de noviembre, (COM(2016) 950 final). Oficina de Publicaciones de la Unión Europea. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ES/TXT/ PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016DC0950