Beyond the short-term emergency, the EU must think about the broader implications of defence integration

By Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol

More integrated EU defence policy implies greater foreign-policy integration and a larger role for the European Parliament to provide accountability.  

The current debates about bolstering the European Union’s defensive capabilities focus on what the EU needs to do to compensate for the United States’s volte-face in supporting Ukraine. The European Commission’s 4 March ReArm Europe plan, which could mobilise up to €800 billion for defence spending,