The European Union’s permanent structured cooperation mechanism

Abstract

The EU’S PERMANENT STRUCTURED COOP ERATION (PESCO) [Article 42(6) and 46 of the Treaty on European Union] is a mechanism that seeks to provide a formal (albeit flexible) institutional framework for willing EU Member States that meet certain military operational and capability criteria (identified in Protocol 10 of the TEU) to establish a closer cooperation in the field of security and defence through ad hoc projects. Scholars like Sven Biscop have been advocating a practical implementation of PESCO since the Lisbon Treaty was signed about a decade ago. The idea of a common European defence is not new: it was first proposed in the form of a European Defence Community which failed to come to fruition in 1952. Ever since, this idea has become somewhat of a taboo, not least because of the emergence of NATO and the European project’s association with the idea of ‘civilian power’. The European project’s 70-year-old lingering ambition culminated in the launch of PESCO (which was still deemed impossible at the time of the launch of the EU Global Strategy in 2016), as it was embraced by the Council through the adoption of an implementation roadmap in March 2018, in association with oth er structures and initiatives such as the European Defence Fund and the Europe