
Towards an EU ‘defence union’?
Think tank: Centre for European Reform
Author(s): Luigi Scazzieri
January 30, 2025
This report from UK think tank the Centre for European Reform takes stock of the EU’s involvement in defence, its challenges and its prospects.
The need for Europeans to urgently strengthen their defences is clearer than ever. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has pushed European countries to raise their defence budgets significantly, but huge challenges lie ahead. The EU has the potential to play a substantial role in building up Europe’s defences. The Union has emerged as a significant defence actor in recent years: it has tools to help expand defence production, to foster joint research and development and to promote joint procurement. There are plans to scale these instruments up, and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen talks of establishing a ‘defence union’.
A new CER paper ‘Towards an EU ‘defence union’?’ by Luigi Scazzieri takes stock of the EU’s involvement in defence, its challenges and its prospects. The author argues that EU instruments suffer from limited funding and political buy-in; and that the politics of the EU’s involvement in defence is difficult to navigate.
The paper offers concrete recommendations for European policy-makers: 1) The EU should explore the possibility of channelling more funds to defence. 2) EU defence tools should focus sharply on addressing military needs and adding value to member-states’ efforts. 3) The EU should be pragmatically open to partnerships – a restrictive approach risks disrupting existing co-operation. 4) Defence considerations should be mainstreamed into policy-making, to ensure that the impact on defence is considered by policy-makers legislating on other issues.