A multidisciplinary perspective on Strategic Autonomy of the European Union: interconnections between NATO and the development of the Permanent Structured Cooperation

Abstract

The lack of cohesion in the understanding of Strategic Autonomy of the European Union makes it difficult to implement any policy that is meant to develop it. With the repeated fidelity of the EU to NATO in defence and security, and the repeated will of the EU to increase strategic autonomy, the research aims at understanding how both of these dynamics interact in practice. This research is not only about implementing strategic autonomy in the EU, it is mostly about looking at the interconnections between NATO and the EU in the implementation of strategic autonomy. By studying a case of implementation of strategic autonomy, it explores the opportunities and shortcomings of strategic autonomy in practice. PESCO entails military capabilities, intergovernmental logic, and differentiated cooperation within the EU which is a highpoint for this domain in the EU. The research focuses on two categories of interconnections : the legal interconnections that are set by EU Law and the member states in their own commitments to NATO, and the interconnections of PESCO with NATO as an organization on which the EU's defence is dependant. A legal analysis revealed a layered structure in the defence and security policies in the European Union which leave PESCO to be stuck between those layers : the goals set by the EU...