Will the December Summit provide a coup de théatre in European defence?

n 19 and 20 December 2013, EU Heads of state or government will devote part of their year-end Summit to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), a critical, yet often neglected, policy area. In order to ‘set the stage’ for a substantial debate by national leaders on defence integration – the first since December 2008 – the High Representative/Vice President (HR/VP), Catherine Ashton, presented a ‘Final Report on CSDP’ last October, describing the state of play and formulating several recommendations for the road ahead.

The inclusion of defence in the European Council’s ‘political show’ was long overdue. Yet, the CSDP could well retrograde from ‘protagonist’ to ‘background actor’. Other priorities, such as the banking union, might overshadow the Summit, and chances are high that EU leaders will only be able to agree on the ‘lowest common denominator’ when it comes to CSDP. Indeed, risks of lip-service and inaction could affect each of the three ‘clusters’ identified in the HR/VP’s Report: effectiveness, visibility and impact of CSDP, development of capabilities, and Europe’s defence industry.