Cooperation on capability development

The 2016 EU-NATO Joint Declaration listed an urgent need to ‘develop coherent, complementary and interoperable defence capabilities of EU Member States and NATO Allies, as well as multilateral projects’. This statement mirrors the ambition contained in the 2016 EU Global Strategy to play a role in deterring external threats and pursuing an autonomous ability to safeguard security both within and beyond Europe’s borders. Any meaningful attempt at defence planning, however, necessitates a clear level of ambition and an associated force planning construct. To date, the latter exists only in the form of NATO’s successive Political Guidance documents and their translation into strategy and doctrine by the Military Committee. This chapter discusses what has been achieved in terms of capability development over the past two years, what challenges the EU and NATO face in strengthening their cooperation, and what the way forward may look like.

ISBN:978-92-9198-837-2

Keywords:NATO, EU, CSDP, capability development

Accessibility:Open