The military of the European Union comprises the various initiatives of cooperation between the armed forces of the member states, both within and outside the legal framework of the union. While the policy area of defence has largely remained the domain of nation states, European integration has deepened in this field in recent years, with the framing of a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) branch for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) as well as the creation of separate international forces revolving around the EU's defence. A number of CSDP military operations have been deployed in recent years. The principal military alliance in Europe remains NATO, which includes 22 of the EU member states together with four non-EU European countries (Turkey, Albania, Iceland and Norway) as well as the United States and Canada.
Several prominent leaders, including former French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy, German ChancellorAngela Merkel, Italian Foreign MinisterFranco Frattini and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, have voiced support for a common defence for the Union.[2][3][4] This possibility, requiring unanimous support among the member states, was formally laid down in Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009.[5] Furthermore, the Treaty of Lisbon extended the enhanced co-operation provision to become available for application in the area of defence. This mechanism enables a minimum number of member states to deepen integration within the EUs institutional framework, without the necessity of participation for reluctant member states.[6]
Following the end of World War II and the defeat of the Axis Powers, the Dunkirk Treaty was signed by France and the United Kingdom on 4 March 1947 as a Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance against a possible German attack in the aftermath of World War II. The Dunkirk Treaty entered into force on 8 September 1947. The 1948 Treaty of Brussels established the military Western Union Defence Organisation with an allied European command structure under Field Marshal Montgomery. Western European powers, except for Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Austria, signed the North Atlantic Treaty alongside the United States and Canada which only created a passive defence association until 1951 when, during the Korean War, the existing and fully functioning Western Union Defence Organisation was augmented to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO.
In the early 1950s, France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries made an attempt to integrate the militaries of mainland western Europe, through the treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC). This scheme did however not enter into force, as it failed to obtain approval for ratification in the French National Assembly, where Gaullists feared for national sovereignty and Communists opposed a European military consolidation that could rival the Soviet Union. The failure to establish the EDC resulted in the 1954 amendment of the Treaty of Brussels at the London and Paris Conferences which in replacement of EDC established the political Western European Union (WEU) out of the earlier established military Western Union Defence Organisation and included West Germany and Italy in both WEU and NATO as the conference ended the occupation of West Germany and the defence aims had shifted from Germany to the Soviet Union.
Map showing European membership of the EU and NATO
EU member only
NATO member only
Member of both
Out of the 28 EU member states, 22 are also members of NATO. Another 3 NATO members are EU Applicants and 1 is solely a member of the European Economic Area. In 1996, the Western European Union (WEU) was tasked by NATO to implement a European Security and Defence Identity within NATO, which later was passed over to the EU Common Security and Defence Policy as all Western European Union functions were transferred to the European Union through the Lisbon Treaty. The memberships of the EU and NATO are distinct, and some EU member states are traditionally neutral on defence issues. Several of the new EU member states were formerly members of the Warsaw Pact. The Berlin Plus agreement is a comprehensive package of agreements made between NATO and the EU in 2002; it allows the EU to draw on some of NATO's assets in its own peacekeeping operations, subject to a "right of first refusal" in that NATO must first decline to intervene in a given crisis.
Following the Kosovo War in 1999, the European Council agreed that "the Union must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and the readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises without prejudice to actions by NATO". To that end, a number of efforts were made to increase the EU's military capability, notably the Helsinki Headline Goal process. After much discussion, the most concrete result was the EU Battlegroups initiative, each of which is planned to be able to deploy quickly about 1500 personnel.[7]
The EU currently has a limited mandate over defence issues, with a role to explore the issue of European defence agreed to in the Amsterdam Treaty, as well as oversight of the Helsinki Headline Goal Force Catalogue (the 'European Rapid Reaction Force') processes. However, some EU states may and do make multilateral agreements about defence issues outside of the EU structures.
Some critics felt that this intra-European process would be a source of tension in the transatlantic arena with NATO and some felt that this was a duplication of existing means with the call for a distinct European headquarters. There were also some concerns about a multi-speed Europe. Britain was initially opposed to the concept but subsequently modified its position in favour.[8]
It is sometimes referred to as the "Initiative of the Four".
SAFE
On 20 February 2009 the European Parliament voted in favour of the creation of Synchronised Armed Forces Europe (SAFE) as a first step towards a true European military force. SAFE will be directed by an EU directorate, with its own training standards and operational doctrine. There are also plans to create an EU "Council of Defence Ministers" and "a European statute for soldiers within the framework of Safe governing training standards, operational doctrine and freedom of operational action".[9]EU forces have been deployed on peacekeeping missions from middle and northern Africa to Western Balkans and western Asia.[10] EU military operations are supported by a number of bodies, including the European Defence Agency, European Union Satellite Centre and the European Union Military Staff.[11] In an EU consisting of 28 members, substantial security and defence co-operation is increasingly relying on great power co-operation.[12]
The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon triggered member states of the Western European Union (WEU) to scrap the organisation, which had largely become dormant, but they have kept the mutual defence clause of the Treaty of Brussels as the basis for the EU mutual defence arrangement.
The defence arrangements which have been established under the EU institutions are part of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), a branch of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It should be noted that Denmark has an opt-out from the CSDP.[1]
European Union Military Staff – supervises military operations carried out by the EU; its chief is General Henri Bentegeat, a former chief of the French Defence Staff.
EU Battlegroup – a type of force of which there are 15, each one numbering 1,500 troops. Under direct control of the European Council.
Helsinki Headline Goal - listing of rapid reaction forces composed of 60,000 troops managed by the European Union, but under control of the countries who deliver troops for it.
The Treaty of Lisbon introduced the following in the founding treaties of the union:
The common security and defence policy shall include the progressive framing of the common defence policy. This will lead to a common defence, when the European Council, acting unanimously, so decides. (TEU, Article 42)[13]
The Treaty of Lisbon added the possibility for those members whose military capabilities fulfill higher criteria and which have made more binding commitments to one another in this area with a view to the most demanding missions shall establish permanent structured cooperation within the EU framework (PSCD).[14]
Those states shall notify their intention to the Council and to the High Representative. The Council then adopts, by qualified majority a decision establishing permanent structured cooperation and determining the list of participating Member States. Any other member state, that fulfills the criteria and wishes to participate, can join the PSCD following the same procedure, but in the voting for the decision will participate only the states already part of the PSCD. If a participating state no longer fulfills the criteria a decision suspending its participation is taken by the same procedure as for accepting new participants, but excluding the concerned state from the voting procedure. If a participating state wishes to withdraw from PSCD it just notifies the Council to remove it from the list of participants. All other decisions and recommendations of the Council concerning PSCD issues unrelated to the list of participants are taken by unanimity of the participating states.[14]
The criteria established in the PSCD Protocol are the following:[14]
co-operate and harmonise requirements and pool resources in the fields related to defence equipment acquisition, research, funding and utilisation, notably the programs and initiatives of the European Defence Agency (e.g. Code of Conduct on Defence Procurement)
capacity to supply, either at national level or as a component of multinational force groups, targeted combat units for the missions planned, structured at a tactical level as a battle group, with support elements including transport (airlift, sealift) and logistics, within a period of five to 30 days, in particular in response to requests from the United Nations Organization, and which can be sustained for an initial period of 30 days and be extended up to at least 120 days.
capable of carrying out in the above timeframes the tasks of joint disarmament operations, humanitarian and rescue tasks, military advice and assistance tasks, conflict prevention and peace-keeping tasks, tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peace-making and post-conflict stabilisation[14]
As of October 2010 there is no announcement for PSCD establishment.[citation needed]
I. German/Dutch Corps has been extended as NATO's Response Force brigade. It includes battalions and platoons from the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Denmark, Turkey and Norway. Overall personnel come from 12 countries.
Cooperation outside the legal framework of the union
The forces and bodies outside the legal framework of the union amongst a subset of member states include the following (pure NATO units are omitted):
The European Corps is a military force composed of 60,000 troops that can be deployed for various missions. The Franco-German Brigade is a joint formation consisting of units from the French and German armies, that is integrated in Eurocorps.
The European Gendarmerie Force is a crisis intervention force composed of 900 personnel, with 2,300 additional personnel that can be deployed as reinforcements-
The European Air Group is an association of the air forces of 7 member nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom) working together to stimulate change and collectively to enhance the tactical capabilities of the Group’s air forces through better cooperation.
It was established in 1995 to promote collaboration between the British and French air forces in the first Gulf War and the subsequent Balkans operations.
The European Air Transport Command (EATC) is the command centre that exercises the operational control of the majority of the aerial refueling capabilities and military transport fleets of a consortium of seven Western European countries. Located at Eindhoven Airbase in the Netherlands, the command also bears a limited responsibility for exercises, aircrew training and the harmonisation of relevant national air transport regulations.[15][16]
The command was established in 2010 with a view to provide a more efficient management of the participating nations' assets and resources in this field.
The European Maritime Force (Euromarfor or EMF) is a non-standing,[17] military force with the current participation of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.[18] The force may carry out naval, air and amphibious operations, with an activation time of 5 days after an order is received.[19]
Dedicated in priority to the European Union (EU), the force can be deployed either in a NATO environment, acting as part of the European branch of NATO, or acting upon the mandate of other international organizations, such as United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or any other international entity.
Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE) is an international military movements control centre at Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands whose members are predominantly drawn from NATO and the EU. The Centre is staffed by 30 military and civilians personnel from the participating countries.
The genesis of MCCE began in 1999 when both EU and NATO identified shortfalls in military capability as the world emerged from a Cold War environment and into a more dynamic Expeditionary Operational era.
There were 2 main findings that remain relevant to MCCE; a shortage of Strategic Lift (air and sea) and the absence of a coordinating body to ensure that lift, when acquired, could be managed to optimize efficiency.
The MCCE is today a multi-national organisation, officially established on 01 July 2007, with the main purpose to coordinate and optimize on a global basis the use of airlift, sealift and land movement assets owned or leased by national militaries of the member Nations. The Centre is located at the Eindhoven military Air Base in The Netherlands. The MCCE is a merger of the earlier European Airlift Centre (EAC) and the Sealift Co-ordination Centre (SCC).
On 13 June 2007, 15 Nations signed the MCCE Technical Arrangement (TA): Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Luxembourg, Estonia and Finland signed in the fall 2007. Poland, Romania and the United States signed in 2008, Austria, Portugal and the Czech Republic in 2010 and Croatia in 2011. Today, MCCE has 25 member nations.
The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (French: Organisation conjointe de coopération en matière d'armement ;OCCAR) is a Europeanintergovernmental organisation which facilitates and manages collaborative armament programmes through their lifecycle between the nations of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain,the United Kingdom.
Military personnel of the Eurocorps in Strasbourg, France, during a change of command ceremony in 2013.
The following table presents the military expenditures of the members of the European Union in euros (€). The combined military expenditure of the member states amounts to just over is €192.5 billion.[1] This represents 1.55% of European Union GDP and is second only to the €503 billion military expenditure of the United States. The US figure represents 4.66% of United States GDP.[20] European military expenditure includes spending on joint projects such as the Eurofighter Typhoon and joint procurement of equipment. The European Union's combined active military forces in 2011 totaled 1,551,038 personnel. According to the European Defence Agency, the European Union had an average of 53,744 land force personnel deployed around the world (or 3.5% of the total military personnel). In a major operation the EU could readily deploy up-to 425,824 land force personnel and sustain 110,814 of those during an enduring operation.[20] In comparison, the US had on average 177,700 troops deployed in 2011. This represents 12.5% of US military personnel.[20]
In a speech in 2012, Swedish General Håkan Syrén criticised the spending levels of European Union countries, saying that in the future those countries' military capability will decrease, creating "critical shortfalls".[21]
Guide to table:
All figure entries in the table below are provided by the European Defence Agency. Figures from other sources are not included.
The table is split into two distinct parts (indicated by colors): red for data regarding expenditure and green for data regarding personnel.
The "operations & maintenance expenditure" category may in some circumstances also include finances on-top of the nations defence budget.
The categories "troops prepared for deployed operations" and "troops prepared for deployed and sustained operation" only include land force personnel.
Country
Military expenditure (€)
Per capita (€)
% of GDP
Operations & maintenance expenditure (€)
Active military personnel
Land troops prepared for deployed operations
Land troops prepared for deployed and sustained operations
Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is the largest commissioned warship in the European Union.
The combined component strength of the European Naval Forces is some 544 commissioned warships. Of those in service, 3 are fleet carriers, the largest of which is the 42,000 tonne Charles de Gaulle. However two 70,600 tonne Queen Elizabeth-class carriers are projected to enter service in the Royal Navy starting 2017. The EU also has 5 amphibious assault ships and 13 amphibious support ships in service. Of the EU's 58 submarines, 21 are nuclear-powered submarines (11 UK and 10 French) while 37 are conventional attack submarines. Many European Navies do not classify destroyer sized vessels as destroyers, and instead classify them as frigates regardless of size and role. This would explain the relatively large difference between the number of destroyers and frigates in service.
Operation Atalanta (formally European Union Naval Force Somalia) is the first ever (and still ongoing) naval operation of the European Union. It is part of a larger global action by the EU in the Horn of Africa to deal with the Somali crisis. As of January 2011 twenty-three EU nations participate in the operation.
Combined, the member states of the European Union maintain large numbers of various land-based military vehicles and weaponry.
Guide to table:
The table is not exhaustive and primarily includes vehicles and EU-NATO member countries under the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE treaty). Unless otherwise specified.
The CFE treaty only includes vehicles stationed within Europe, vehicles overseas on operations are not counted.
The "main battle tank" category also includes tank destroyers (such as the Italian B1 Centauro) or any self-propelled armoured fighting vehicle, capable of heavy firepower. According to the CFE treaty.
The "armoured fighting vehicle" category includes any armoured vehicle primarily designed to transport infantry and equipped with an automatic cannon of at least 20 mm calibre. According to the CFE treaty.
The "artillery" category includes self-propelled or towed howitzers and mortars of 100 mm calibre and above. Other types of artillery are not included regardless of characteristics. According to the CFE treaty.
The "attack helicopter" category includes any rotary wing aircraft armed and equipped to engage targets or equipped to perform other military functions (such as the Apache or the Wildcat). According to the CFE treaty.
The "military logistics vehicle" category includes logistics trucks of 4-tonne, 8-tonne, 14-tonne or larger, purposely designed for military tasking. Not under CFE treaty.
The Air Forces of Europe operate a wide range of military systems and hardware. This is primarily due to the independent requirements of each member state and also the national defence industries of some member states. However such programmes like the Eurofighter Typhoon and Eurocopter Tiger have seen many European nations design, build and operate a single weapons platform. 60% of overall combat fleet was developed and manufactured by member states, 32% are US-origin, but some of these were assembled in Europe, while remaining 8% are soviet-made aircraft. As of 2014, it is estimated that the European Union had around 2,000 serviceable combat aircraft (fighter aircraft and ground-attack aircraft).[43]
The EUs air-lift capabilities are evolving with the future introduction of the Airbus A400M (another example of EU defence cooperation). The A400M is a tactical airlifter with strategic capabilities.[44] Around 140 are initially expected to be operated by 6 member states (UK, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Spain and Belgium).
Guide to tables:
The tables are sourced from figures provided by Flight International for the year 2014.
Aircraft are grouped into three main types (indicated by colors): red for combat aircraft, green for aerial refueling aircraft, and grey for strategic and tactical transport aircraft.
The two "other" columns include additional aircraft according to their type sorted by colour (i.e. the "other" category in red includes combat aircraft, while the "other" category in grey includes both aerial refueling and transport aircraft). This was done because it was not feasible allocate every aircraft type its own column.
Other aircraft such as trainers, helicopters, UAVs and reconnaissance or surveillance aircraft are not included in the below tables or figures.
^Germond, Basil (2006). “The Naval and Maritime Dimension of the European Union”, in The EC/EU: a world security actor? An assessment after 50 years of the external actions of the EC/EU, European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), Paris, 14-15 September 2006.
^Council of the European Union (July 2009). "EU BATTLEGROUPS"(PDF). Europa web portal. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
_underway_2009.jpg)
