In an increasingly perilous international context, the European Union’s ability to uphold and promote its normative core and vision depends largely on its capacity to act through an integrated defence policy. This contribution therefore contends that the Union must urgently bolster its defence portfolio. The analysis demonstrates that effective European defence goes beyond the intergovernmental framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy to encompass supranational policy issues such as internal market regulation, industrial policy, infrastructure projects, and research funding. Approaching defence as a cross-cutting policy issue, the article explores the key law and governance challenges and opportunities arising from defence-related integration in terms of decision-making, agenda-setting, funding, policy implementation, and accountability. Ultimately, the contribution emphasizes the necessity of political resolve coupled with legal innovation to overcome institutional inertia and enable EU defence to contribute to safeguarding the Union’s values.
Carolyn Moser (Sun,) studied this question.