The Commission’s new proposals to strengthen Europe’s defence industry will be hamstrung by limited funding and member-states’ doubts. But in the long term, the EU’s role in defence will probably grow. Last week, the European Commission released much delayed plans to give greater coherence to the EU’s involvement in defence. The Commission’s European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) and the accompanying proposal for a European Defence Industrial Programme (EDIP) mark the latest steps in the EU’s deepening role in defence industrial matters. Their aim is to shift from the emergency measures taken since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to what the Commission terms “structural EU defence readiness”.
Author: Luigi Scazzieri, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Reform.
This text has originally been published on the CER website.
