PESCO - The Moment of Truth for "European Defense"

The official launch of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), with the EU

Council decision of December 2017, marks a turning point in the evolution of European
integration efforts in the field of defense. This decision is part of the more general package to
strengthen the EU's security and defense dimension, assumed by the current leadership of the
Union and the main Member States (mainly France and Germany) as a major direction to
relaunch and confirm the viability European project.
Regarding the efficiency of the process of institutionalizing PESCO, encouraging
developments can be identified, as well as serious challenges for the whole project. The most
important are related to the consistency of the programs included in the initiative, towards the
achievement of important military capabilities and, implicitly, the strategic autonomy of the EU,
the relationship with NATO (the complementarity versus competition dilemma) and the cautious
management of expectations at the political level and social.
Romania has decided to participate in PESCO, with direct involvement in 5 of the 17
projects approved in this phase, and in the coming period will have to respond to major pressures
related to the operationalization of the initiative. Important elements in the timetable for its
implementation overlap with the Romanian presidency of the EU Council in the first half of
2019.
Under these circumstances, the declarative mimicry of the interest in participation, in
the absence of substance involvement in the main dimensions of PESCO, starting from the
strategic orientation of our country, can only generate negative influences for the national
security interests. Metaphorically associated with the awakening of the sleeping beauty, the
official launch of PESCO in December 2017 is a true "game changer" and culminates in the
major evolutions and developments in the field of European Security and Defense Consolidation
over the past two years, underlying the implementation of the EU Global Strategy.
From a long-term perspective, the initiative is seen as a new major attempt to advance
European defense integration following the failure of other post-war efforts (the European
Defense Community in the 1950s and the inability of Europeans to act effectively in Balkan
crises in the years 90). Unlike previous attempts, we are currently witnessing some qualitatively
different evolutions, which are solid arguments for substantiating the necessity of
operationalising PESCO.
First of all, it is a particularly complicated strategic context of security threats in the
East and South, the crisis of migration, the terrorist attacks, Brexit and the isolationist tendencies
of the Trump administration. These elements generated a more consistent expectation and social
support, as demonstrated by opinion polls, to advance integration processes in the areas of
security and defense. Based on these arguments, in 2016, the Global Strategy for EU Foreign and
Security Policy was adopted, followed by an ambitious program of implementation actions, with
particular emphasis on defense developments.

Synthetically, the main initiatives and processes recently agreed by the EU Member
States, complementary to the implementation of the PESCO, at different stages of
implementation, are:
 Establishment of the Military Planning and Leadership Capability (MPCC) within the
European Union Major Military Staff (EUMS);
 the launch of the European Defense Fund (EDF), which opens for the first time the
possibility of European funding, collaborative research and the joint acquisition of military
capabilities, and the priority given by the Commission to the area of security and defense in
its budget proposal for the period 2021-2027;
 the Annual Coordination of Defense Review (CARD) process as a mechanism to monitor the
state of fulfillment of the targets assumed by the Member States.

Each of them is an important step in the direction of intensifying European cooperation

and even a paradigm shift, hard to imagine in a past not too distant. Due to the major
consequences it produces, it is worth highlighting the Commission's major involvement in these
projects through EDF, announced by President Juncker in September 2016 and endorsed by the
European Council in December 2016. Permanent structured co-operation in the field of defense
was introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 and provides for the possibility for EU Member
States fulfilling more advanced military capabilities criteria and willing to make additional
commitments in the face of more demanding missions to be able to achieve between them
advanced cooperation.
At the time of the entry into force of the Treaty, this cooperation was seen as a solution
to relaunch the process of developing defense capabilities at European level by reducing
duplication and pooling resources. Subsequently, until the crises that affected European security
in the middle of this decade, there was only a small political appetite for the implementation of
the PESCO, also argued by the risk of the emergence of the so-called Europe with two speeds in
the field of security and defense. Subsequently, in the negotiation phase of the initiative, a
balance has been achieved between the combination of inclusion requirements (participation of
as many Member States as possible) and commitment (through the definition of ambitious
criteria).
Following intense negotiations between Member States on 11 December 2017, the
Council adopted the PeSCo establishment decision less than one month after receiving a joint
notification from Member States of their intention to launch the initiative. The 25 Member States
participating in the PESCO are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Romania,
Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. The Council Decision setting up the initiative sets out the
participating Member States, the list of ambitious and more binding joint commitments
undertaken by the States concerned, including "the regular increase of defense budgets in real
terms, in order to achieve the agreed objectives", the PeSCo governance, with a general level that
maintains the coherence and level of ambition of the initiative, complemented by project-specific
governance procedures, administrative arrangements, including project secretariat functions and
funding arrangements.
In March 2018, the EU Council, in the format of the defense ministers of the Member
States, adopted the initial list of 17 projects to be carried out within PESCO. They address three
important areas - joint training and exercises, capability development and increased operational
status of forces in all operational areas - land, sea, air and cybernetic. The process will continue,
with a view to agreeing to a new list of projects in the second half of this year. As practical
working mechanisms at the Council level, the 25 participating states ensure political direction
and adopt strategic decisions for the initiative.
At project level, only the Member States involved directly participate in decision-
making and implementation of specific actions. At the same time, the PESCO Secretariat,
consisting of the European External Action Service, with the support of the EU Military Staff
and the European Defense Agency, was set up and a clear timetable for evaluating the annual
implementation plans for the commitments of each participating country. From the perspective
of the objectives, PESCO can not be interpreted as a substitute for the Common Security and
Defense Policy, and it does not in itself lead to the redistribution of the EU's level of ambition in
the field of security and defense. The main purpose of the initiative is to provide a platform for
cooperation between participating states to facilitate the development of the capabilities needed
to achieve the objectives set out in the Global Strategy. This is evidenced by the major focus of
the concrete project initiative and the specific mechanisms for their development.