The European Defence Programme focuses on the future of European defence, in the frameworks of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and NATO’s European pillar. It addresses the opportunities for enhancing EU-NATO relations, encouraging greater commitment to transatlantic burdensharing, strengthening the European defence industrial base and improving European cohesion on defence matters.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a new impetus for the European Union to further its territorial and institutional integration. Nicholas Lokker writes that creativity and compromise will be essential to capitalising on this opportunity to increase the EU’s geopolitical influence.
With NATO leaders meeting in Madrid to agree on a new Strategic Concept, Adam Thomson and Graham Stacey argue that it must deliver modern deterrence fit for the next decade. They suggest four adjustments that would make NATO’s deterrence more effective at lower risk and lower cost.
Dr Ian Anthony examines confidence and security building measures (CSBMs) in Central and Eastern Europe and notes steps made by countries such as Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine to create and enhance bilateral discussion formats. This policy brief analyses these measures and examines their applicability to the current conflict in Ukraine and the European security order that will follow the war.
The Russia-Ukraine war has revealed Europe’s inability to deter Russia from invading Ukraine, writes Adérito Vicente. He argues that the reasons include EU’s security idiosyncrasies, nuclear policy choices, divergent political interests, energy dependency and ineffective sanctions policy on Russia.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has already devastated Ukraine, and the situation could get even worse: Carlo Trezza argues that Russia could, for example, resort to chemical and/or nuclear weapons. To stand up to Russia’s aggression, there are many actions that both NATO and the UN can take to pressure Russia.
Following Russia’s military action, the United States will sooner or later turn back to its “Pivot to Asia” due to China’s challenge to its global primacy, leaving the EU to deal with Russia relatively alone. The EU finds itself at a turning point in its history where it needs to take decisive steps towards building a comprehensive security and defence strategy, writes Iren Marinova.
On Friday 14 June the ELN hosted a meeting of Balkan parliamentarians representing 12 countries at the House of Lords. This meeting launched an open-ended programme of work on Balkans security, with a focus on strengthening collaborative capacity among Balkans parliamentarians to address security matters.
ELN Policy Fellow Alice Billon-Galland participated in the Carnegie Europe Summer Academy on European defence industry in Brussels on June 20-21 2019.
Supported by the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the forthcoming Finnish presidency, the seminar sought to specify the trade-offs for “European sovereignty” in security and defence.