Spend ‘better’ rather than ‘more’ – European synergies in the focus
Also with a view to the limited fiscal space of many Eurozone/NATO members,
Germany’s revamped security policy guidelines strongly emphasize the need for
European defence collaboration to “achieve more synergies and greater
effectiveness”.
This includes specialisation and interlinkages of European armed
forces, increased standardisation in the defence industry and harmonisation of
procurement.Moving closer towards that target, European heads of state at the June
European council meeting agreed on plans for enhanced EU defence
cooperation that foresee a “European Defence Fund”, cost sharing for European
battle groups and EU military missions of willing countries. Deeper European
defence integration is by no means a new or specifically German idea. In fact, it
is explicitly foreseen in the EU treaty. But the topic remained dormant over the
years, not least due to concerns in the UK that this would overlap with existing
NATO capacities.
Following the UK’s decision to leave the Union, France and
Germany pushed to reinvigorate the plan and received support at a September
2016 meeting of EU defence ministers (excluding UK) in Bratislava.
EU Forecast
euf:ba18.d:78/nws-01