The security and defence of the European Union touches on a core area of national sovereignty.
Lack of political will and mutual trust among EU member states has long been an obstacle to achieving the treaty objectives and blocked the framing of a policy that could lead to a common defence.
In recent years, defence budgets all over Europe have been slashed in an uncoordinated manner, hollowing out most member states’ capabilities.
For this reason, the leaders of the EU me...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.