After listing the mistakes that must be avoided and conditions that must be met for European defence to progress, the author sets out the technological challenges that the Union will have to take up, which means investment in R&D, particularly in the space and aeronautical industry. He concludes with the initiatives that the forthcoming French EU presidency should take to relaunch European defence.
Relaunching European Defence
The member states of the European Union have never been so prominent on the international scene and in crisis regions. Varying numbers of them are involved in 33 external operations, of which 12 are in the context of European Security and Defence Policy. Collectively, they are the greatest providers of state development aid and the top contributors to the United Nations budget for peacekeeping, for which they provide ten times more men than the United States. With the largest Gross Domestic Product in the world, the Union is in demand everywhere and by everyone. It is called upon worldwide and in particular by its immediate neighbourhood, on which it spent e5.6 billion in 2007. During that year, it participated in 84 meetings with third-party countries at ministerial level or above, which equates to one high-level meeting every three working days. Who does more? One may regret its lack of unity on some major international political issues but one cannot deny the emergence of the Union on the international scene. The Community system has been stretched to the limit in opening up to the world. To go further, it must now unite politically more closely and move towards a true common external policy which would change its status of ‘global payer’ to one of ‘global player’. As so often in the history of the Continent’s unification, this progress will be achieved by practical means, even sometimes indirectly. It is likely that we will progress first in European defence before constituting a real common foreign policy. The international situation is pushing us in this direction and several member states are in favour of it. The French President has made it one of the high priorities for his forthcoming EU presidency.
A relaunch of the common defence policy therefore seems likely. It is subject to certain political conditions, to decisions of an economic nature concerning the European defence industries and also to new political initiatives.
Conditions for a European Defence
European defence must avoid three mistakes and fulfil three conditions.
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