European Defence Cooperation
Resumo
The article offers a view on the state of events and initiatives leading to recent developments in European defence cooperation from June 2016 – when the EU Global Strategy was presented – till June 2018 – when a call for the evaluation of progress of PESCO projects was endorsed by the Council. It argues that despite being presented as an inclusive and binding endeavour, European defence cooperation comprises political, technological and operational standards, which are not accessible to all Member States for reasons of national interest, technological and industrial gap and operationaloutput. However, the developments of the past two years seem to have been having an incremental effect on defence cooperation, regarding the identification and agreement on strategic priorities and the development of financial incentives and processes that may consolidate European defence cooperation, as claimed by the EUGS.