Permanent Sovereign COoperation (PESCO) to underpin the EU Global Strategy. Egmont Security Policy Brief No. 80 December 2016

Coelmont, Joel. (2016) Permanent Sovereign COoperation (PESCO) to underpin the EU Global Strategy. Egmont Security Policy Brief No. 80 December 2016. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

The EU now has a full-fledged Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy – and defence. Just in time. The EUGS includes a clear political level of ambition as well as a call to define the corresponding military level of ambition and the required capabilities. The list of strategic military shortfalls, first identified in 2000 at the start of the then European Security and Defence Policy, will obviously grow still longer. For new tasks have to be integrated, while in the last fifteen years, in spite of all the good intentions about “pooling and sharing”, not a single existing strategic shortfall has been solved.Because a shortfall cannot be pooled – one can only share one’s frustration at that. No wonder therefore that Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) is once again on the agenda as a potential game changer. Yet the Member States are very reluctant to launch it. Why?

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