Perspektiven einer Europäischen Verteidigungsunion

The legal framework established by EU law for matters of security and defence can be understood to incentivise the establishment of a European Defence Union within the EU’s political, legal, and institutional framework. This is true even though the precise legal nature of the CSDP, common defence policy, and common defence, including mutual assistance as per Art. 42(7) TEU, cannot be clearly derived from these rules. However, the path taken towards this European Defence Union to date demonstrates that such efforts will only lead to their goal – which still needs to be described and/or defined more precisely – if expectations are managed appropriately. Related expectation management should include recognizing that European Union law, while complex, nevertheless provides a manageable framework within which a European Defence Union can be implemented, provided all actors involved are willing: if the European Council incorporates this goal into its determinations of the EU’s strategic interests and objectives, and if the resulting political and legal requirements for coherence (i.e., to be implemented through EU law, both legislative and non-legislative acts) are implemented loyally by all Union institutions (Art. 13(2) TEU) and with full (rather than declaratory) respect for Member States’ national identity and sovereignty.