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What Ambition for Defence in the EU? - October 19 2016

by Giovanni Grevi

The multiple crises that have hit the European Union (EU) have damaged political cohesion within and between member states. Notably after the Brexit vote, there is growing awareness in many capitals that without a renewed investment in the European project, the latter may unravel. With key countries such as France and Germany facing elections in 2017, the prospects for injecting new momentum into European integration are sobering. In this context, the leaders of 27 EU member states meeting in Bratislava in September put internal and external security and defence at the core of their roadmap for further action. However, is there political space to make progress at the EU level in one of the most jealously preserved precincts of national sovereignty, namely defence policy? [...]