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European Union & Ministry of Defence
European Union:
European Union (EU) is a political union which operates through a hybrid system of
supranational and intergovernmental decision-making of its 28 member states, with the total
population of 508 million, that are located in Europe. The European Union has seven institutions:
the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the European
Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the
European Court of Auditors.
The EU traces its origins to the European Economic Community (EEC), which is founded
by the Inner Six countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany),
and grown in size by addition of Outer Seven countries. With the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the
name “European Union” was established and the term “European citizenship” was introduced.
As in 2016, EU countries share common policies on various governmental topics. Also, EU
countries do not require passport controls in Schengen Area and ensure free movement of people,
goods, services, and capital, and share an internal single market. 19 members of EU use Euro (€)
with the establishment of monetary union in 1999.
Ministry of Defence:
Ministry of Defence, in all countries, regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. In many
nations it is a strong convention that the defence minister be a civilian, in order to highlight civilian
control over the military, though it is not uncommon for the defence minister to have some military
experience. In less democratic countries, the minister is often an active military official.
Intelligence agencies of a country are also connected directly to the Defence Department of
a country, or to a parent agency which is connected to the Defence Department. The intelligence
agencies working under the Ministry of Defence aim to collect, analyse, and exploit information
and intelligence in support of various objectives, one of which is national security.
EU & Defence:
EU follows a Common Security and Defence Policy, which can be briefly explained by the
key points such as:
• EU countries must make civilian and military capabilities available to the EU to implement
the CSDP.
• The CSDP includes the progressive framing of a common EU defence policy; this will lead
to a common defence when the European Council, acting unanimously, so decides; the
policy of the EU will not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy
of certain EU countries and will respect the obligations of certain EU countries under
NATO. Under the Treaty of Lisbon, a mutual defence clause was created, which is a key
element of the CSDP.
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EU countries will take measures to improve their military capacities. The European Defence
Agency (EDA) is the body that aims to help facilitate those measures. It reports to the
Council of the EU on its work, which revolves around:
setting common objectives for EU countries in terms of military capacity;
introducing and the managing programmes in order to achieve set objectives;
harmonising EU countries' operational needs through the notion of ‘pooling and
sharing’ military capabilities;
managing defence technology research activities (22 priority areas including
electronics hardware, counter-landmine systems, and physical protection);
strengthening the defence sector’s industrial and technological base; and
making military expenditure more effective.
The permanent structured cooperation in defence (PSCD) (also added in the Lisbon Treaty Articles 42 and 46 of the Treaty on European Union) refers to a deeper form of cooperation
between EU countries. Under this framework, EU countries commit to developing their
defence capacities more intensively and supply combat units for planned missions. The EDA
assesses contributions, while the Council authorises the cooperation.
The EU may use civilian and military assets outside the EU for peace-keeping, conflict
prevention and strengthening international security. The types of tasks that can be carried
out under the CSDP are:
humanitarian and rescue tasks;
conflict prevention;
tasks for combat forces in crisis management;
joint disarmament operations;
military advice and assistance tasks; and
tasks in post-conflict stabilisation.
The Council of the EU defines the objectives of the tasks and the conditions for their
implementation. It may delegate the implementation of a task to EU countries willing and
able to carry out the task. EU countries responsible for carrying out tasks act in association
with the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and they must
regularly inform the Council of their progress.
The recent events in EU had an impact on Defence Ministries around the EU. Defence and
security, with increasing tension in EU caused by the excessive amount of immigration from
Middle-Eastern countries due to the instability in the region, is arguably one of the most important
issues in EU, if not the most. Latest terrorist activities all around EU has increased the importance
of intelligence agencies in EU, which is directly related to the Ministry of Defence. It is the duty of
intelligence agencies to collect information about terrorist attacks.
Resources & More Info:
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http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV%3Aai0026
http://carnegieeurope.eu/publications/?fa=60139
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/11617720/definition.html