Permanent Structured Cooperation and the Future of the ESDP: Transformation and Integration

Abstract: The low deployability of Europe’s armed forces is a well–known problem. The primary cause of this problematic state of affairs is the still almost exclusively national focus of defence planning, while capability gaps at the aggregate EU and NATO levels are being ignored. The question must be asked whether the existing mechanisms for capability development, in the ESDP as well as NATO, are sufficient to achieve the required transformation from static to expeditionary forces within a reasonable time frame. The only way to achieve the quantum leap that is necessary to realise defence transformation is through pooling, which, by reducing intra–European duplications, can produce much more deployable capabilities within the current combined defence budget. From that point of view, Permanent Structured Cooperation, the new mechanism for capability development to be established by the Lisbon Treaty, has great potential. If successful, it will require a rethinking of NATO defence planning and its relation with the ESDP, as well as the start of a broader strategic debate on a defence white paper for the EU.