The French Senate's Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Armed Forces puts forward twelve proposals to strengthen European defence.
The report by Hélène Conway-Mouret and Ronan Le Gleut on the theme "European Defence: the challenge of strategic autonomy", adopted at the beginning of July, promotes in particular the need to create "the conditions for a greater visibility of defence issues within the European institutions". According to the senators, this should involve the creation of a Directorate-General for Defence and Space in the Commission, or even a post of Commissioner or Deputy to the High Representative in these areas, and a Defence training of the Council of the EU, and no longer under-train in Defence in the framework of Foreign Affairs.
The report reveals that it is necessary to work on the collective drafting of a European Defence White Paper "a missing link between the EU's Global Strategy, capability processes and existing operational arrangements".
The senators also support two major European projects: the European Defence Fund, by defending the Commission's budget proposal of €13 billion and Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) by making it an approach to fill the EU's capability gaps, consistent with the White Paper.
The relaunch of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), by concentrating resources where the Union has the greatest added value, is another proposal.
The report also returns to the EU after Brexit. The committee believes that the EU should make the conclusion of a defence and security treaty with the United Kingdom an "absolute priority". According to it, "flexible solutions" must be proposed in London to enable it to participate as much as possible in EU mechanisms (European Defence Fund, PESCO, Galileo, etc.). In addition, the senators would like to see the creation of a new NATO position of Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, reserved for a representative of an EU Member State, in addition to the existing position traditionally reserved for a British national.
To see the twelve proposals and the report (in French): https://bit.ly/2GD1L2p (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)