A stand for true reciprocity
"The participation of Finland, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands in the next phase of PESCO – the EU’s key defence cooperation framework – should be made conditional, by the Council, upon their reciprocal support of the Next Generation EU recovery package. At this crucial turning point, cooperation and solidarity against external threats are critical and cannot be subject to cherry-picking." Defence, an increasingly active yet little-known facet of the EU As established in Title V of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), defence and security are the exclusive responsibility of member states. Hence, defence collaboration across EU countries is an opportunity for optional, enhanced cooperation among states towards the “progressive framing” of a common defence policy, as stated in the TEU. While optional, the benefits are obvious – close political association, ease of cross-border industrial collaboration and shared priorities, to name but a few. All this happens under the auspi...