Published on the eve of the NATO Summit in Chicago (May 20-21), this CEPS Commentary analyses the impact of the summit and the Smart Defence agenda on the European Union’s defence policy. Will the EU follow NATO and go ‘smart’? The authors point out that the NATO agenda provides indeed a unique chance for the EU to make unprecedented progress on pooling and sharing. They outline a three-part road map to rationalise the EU defence market and put the Union back on track as a credible and capable security provider. The Commentary also stresses that complementarity between the NATO and EU agenda is all important to achieve long-term change.
Giovanni Faleg is a Visiting Researcher at CEPS and a Ph.D. Candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Alessandro Giovannini is a Research Assistant at CEPS. This Commentary draws on the authors’ more detailed analysis presented in a CEPS Special Report, “EU between pooling & sharing and smart defence: Making a virtue of necessity?”, May 2012.
