Permanent Sovereign Cooperation (PESCO) to underpin the EU Global Strategy

Abstract:

At the end of 2016, the EU now had a full-fledged Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy – and defence. The EUGS included 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, was foreseen to grow longer, for new tasks had to be integrated, while in the previous 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) was once again on the agenda as a potential game changer. Yet the Member States were very reluctant to launch it. Why?

ESO: Background information: European Union Global Strategy http://www.europeansources.info/record/european-union-global-strategy/

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