Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) projects

(PESCO)

Rome [ENA] On 11 December 2017, the Council of the EU adopted a decision establishing Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), in the field of Defence cooperation. This permanent framework for defence cooperation allows willing and able member states to develop jointly defence capabilities, invest in shared projects, and enhance the operational readiness and contribution of their armed forces.

The 25 member states participating in PESCO are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. Today, PESCO projects, if funded accordingly, could strengthen Member States’ preparedness, should another massive public health crisis occur: military mobility – a flagship PESCO project –, the European Medical Command and many other projects in areas related to logistics and transportation, health care, disaster relief and the fight against malicious cyber activities.

Of course, cutting funding for the strategic capabilities that the EU and its Member States currently lack would also weaken their ability to jointly act against future pandemics. The participation of third countries in individual PESCO projects might be in the strategic interest of the European Union, particularly in case of the United Kingdom. It is important to maintain the EU’s budgetary ambition for the strengthening of defence capabilities, especially through the sufficient financing of the European Defence Fund in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework and ensure that PESCO is effectively used as an instrument to reach EU defence integration as a common goal, in line with the ambition for greater EU Strategic Autonomy.

PESCO ought to be treated as a peculiar Union institution, as is the case with the European External Action Service (EEAS), which would require amending the Financial Regulation in order to include PESCO, with a specific section in the Union budget. In this case one has to recognize that the European Parliament, jointly with the Council, exercises legislative and budgetary functions, as well as functions of political control and consultation as laid down in the Treaties. PESCO efforts on projects with a strategic and integrative dimension, such as EUFOR (European Union Force), and link those to other PESCO projects in order to create additional synergies and effects of scale is crucial.

That could ensure that future key land, sea, air and other platforms for the armed forces of the Member States are brought under PESCO or are at least closely connected to it. The reform of the EU Battlegroup system, to bring it under PESCO in order to increase its operational capacity, modularity and agility is the strategically relevant goal of defense integration policies. Last but not least, an EU Council on Defence based on the existing European Defence Agency ministerial Steering Board and the PESCO format of EU Defence Ministers ought to be established in order to guarantee the prioritization of resources, and the effective cooperation and integration among the Member States.