The EU’s Winter Package for European Security and Defence. CEPS Commentary, 16 December 2016

Solana, Javier and Blockmans, Steven. (2016) The EU’s Winter Package for European Security and Defence. CEPS Commentary, 16 December 2016. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

THE SECURITY AND DEFENCE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION touches on a core area of national sovereignty. Lack of political will and mutual trust among EU member states has long been an obstacle to achieving the treaty objectives and has blocked the framing of a policy that could lead to a common defence. In recent years, defence budgets all over Europe have been slashed in an uncoordinated manner, hollowing out most member states’ capabilities. For this reason, the leaders of the EU member states meeting at the December 2013 European Council decided to buck the trend. But delivery has lagged behind.

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