Pour une Défense d’avance
Pour une Défense d’avance
European defence does not mean the collective defence of European countries against an external threat, which is guaranteed by NATO, but the management of crises outside of the European Union. European countries first sought to secure an area on Europe's borders which could be disruptive or even dangerous for their own national security.
The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), a crisis management tool available to the European Union and its member states, constitutes, alongside the UN and NATO, a preferred multilateral framework for external peacekeeping operations.
In 1950, the start of the cold war in Europe raised the issue of European security and German rearmament. The European Defence Community (EDC), a plan proposed in 1950 by René Pleven, the French President of the Council, was meant to result in the creation of an integrated military force which was funded through a joint budget and governed by a supranational political authority. The EDC would harness the rearmament of Germany, made necessary by a worsening cold war environment, as well as embody a project for political union with federalist undertones.
Military and civil capabilities are essential for the European Union to undertake its missions and operations worldwide and meet its goals. The European Council held in Helsinki on 10 and 11 December 1999 marked the real starting point of the process to develop military capabilities at a European level.