More Defence for less Money

The EU is facing a dramatically aggravated security environment in the East and South of its borders. At the same time, the financial crisis has led to drastic uncoordinated cuts in the defence budgets of the EU Member States. The EU's ability to project power into its neighbourhood is weak, most of its CSDP (Common Security and Defence Policy) operations are just too little, too late. While territorial defence of Western Europe continues to depend heavily on the US, several consecutive American administrations have been urging Europeans to take more responsibility for their own security within NATO.

The European Council has so far taken only small steps to encourage greater cooperation among Member States – clearly insufficient, if one looks at the alarming and deteriorating circumstances.

On the eve of the European Council on Defence of 25th June, ALDE will present its 'Roadmap towards an Integrated EU Military' to show the way how to achieve more European defence for less money, essentially by building an integrated European pillar of NATO.

The event will see a presentation of the roadmap by ALDE President Guy Verhofstadt, followed by keynote speeches by two ALDE Ministers of Defence and their former Finnish counterpart.