The EU’s Nascent Role in the Field of Collective Defence: Between Deliberate and Emergent Strategy

By Elie Perot

24.7.2023

Journal of European Integration

Over the past 15 years, the EU has gradually become more involved, de jure and de facto, in the field of collective defence. This under-appreciated evolution occurred in three phases: first, an initial phase, from the steps leading up to the Lisbon Treaty, which incorporated collective defence into the EU’s mandate via Article 42.7 TEU, to the first activation of this provision following the November 2015 Paris attacks; second, a phase of indirect development, with the launch of policies on military mobility and hybrid threats, tangentially linked to collective defence; and third, a phase of direct yet incomplete affirmation, with calls to operationalise Article 42.7 TEU and the signalling of the EU as a collective defence framework during crises with Turkey and Russia. The EU’s modest forays in collective defence, while resulting from both a deliberate and emergent strategy, have become more conscious over time and thus increasingly difficult to ignore.

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