Communication: European Defence Action Plan

President Juncker stressed in his 2016 State of the Union address the need for a Europe that protects, empowers and defends. Taking greater responsibility for their security means that Europeans must invest in the development of key defence capabilities to be able to deter, respond, and protect themselves against external threats. The European Union must demonstrate that it can act as a provider of hard as well as soft security, addressing calls for greater solidarity in security and defence. The Bratislava roadmap, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have also recently underlined this priority.

A stronger European defence requires Member States' joint acquisition, development and retention of the full-spectrum of land, air, space and maritime capabilities. The Global Strategy for the European Union's Foreign and Security Policy identifies a number of defence capability priority areas in which Europe needs to invest and develop collaborative approaches: intelligence-surveillance reconnaissance, remotely piloted aircraft systems, satellite communications and autonomous access to space and permanent earth observation; high end military capabilities including strategic enablers, as well as capabilities to ensure cyber and maritime security.

The European defence market suffers from fragmentation and insufficient industrial collaboration. A more efficient use of public money and a stronger industrial base could be achieved by strengthening the Defence Single Market, reducing duplications and improving the competitiveness of the EU defence industry.

For Europe to be able to deliver on these capability priorities, it must create the conditions for more defence cooperation to maximise the output and the efficiency of defence spending. This should go hand-in-hand with a strong, competitive and innovative defence industrial base and, to the benefit of the broader economy: investments in the defence sector have a significant economic multiplier effect in terms of creation of spin-offs and technology transfers to other sectors, as well as the creation of jobs.

This European Defence Action Plan contributes to ensuring that the European defence industrial base is able to meet Europe's current and future security needs and, in that respect, enhances the Union's strategic autonomy, strengthening its ability to act with partners. This Action Plan is closely linked with the Global Strategy's Implementation Plan on Security and Defence, which sets out a new level of ambition for the Union and identifies actions to fulfil it, as well as with the implementation of the EU-NATO Joint Declaration signed by the President of the European Council, the President of the Commission and the Secretary-General of NATO. The actions proposed in this European Defence Action Plan will lead to a stronger European Union in defence, which ultimately means a stronger NATO.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Adoption of the European Defence Action Plan http://www.europeansources.info/record/adoption-of-the-european-defence-action-plan/

EDA: Europe Defence Matters, No.12 [2017]: European Defence Action Plan: An extra push to revitalize defence cooperation https://www.eda.europa.eu/docs/default-source/eda-magazine/edm12_web_light

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