Better - together

Abstract

While reports of the imminent demise of the European Union (EU) - due to the migrant crisis, the euro crisis or the prospect of a UK 'Brexit' - have been exaggerated, there is little doubt that such eventsare forcing European countries to concentrate on the crucial areas in which they must push ahead on much closer co-operation if they are to preserve and protect their societies and way of life. Control of the EU's external borders is the obvious example, but so is defence and. in pan icutor, capability development. Europe's historical approach of national self-sufficiency in defence matters is not only increasingly difficult to follow across all military capabilities, but is plainly uttif- fordable in an era of unrelenting budgetary austerity. The only solution to filling some of the critical military capability gaps Europe faces is for countries to do it together, multi- nationally, by sharing the cost of a capabil-ity's development and even its ownership. EU leaders promised to pursue this at their December 2013 defence summit, outlining four 'flagship' projects - satellite service provision for Europe's public sector players, air-to-air refuelling capability, cyber-defence co-operation, and development of a future long-range military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) - and leaving it to the European Defence Agency (EDA) to oversee their coordination.