The Current Legal Basis and Governance Structures of the EU’s Defence Activities

By Viktor Szép, Ramses A. Wessel, Ester Sabatino, Carmen Gebhard & Edouard Simon

This Working Paper explores the current legal basis and governance structures of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and other areas with defence implications. It provides a summary of ground rules to address the boundaries of enhancing the functioning of the CSDP and reveal the possibilities that are offered by the existing legal framework.

The paper emphasises that the current Treaty framework allows the use of the so-called “sleeping beauties”, including the potential use of Article 44 of the Treaty on European Union. The latter may contribute to achieving the EU’s strategic objectives by allowing a group of Member States to perform a task in the EU’s interest.

The paper also highlights recent actions taken to increase defence collaborations and industrial activities, which are expected to boost the coordination and effectiveness of EU defence policy and to foster the competitiveness of the European defence industry.