The European External Action Service (EEAS), in the 2020 Strategic Review of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PSC or PESCO), published on Monday 12 October and obtained by EUROPE, considers that the Member States participating in permanent structured cooperation must step up their efforts to fulfil the most binding commitments.
This document is to be discussed on Wednesday 13 October in the Political and Security Committee.
According to the EEAS, the more binding commitments made mutually among participants were a “strong guideline” for ensuring consistent implementation of the PESCO and should not be changed. However, the progress made, particularly in relation to operational commitments and the European collaborative approach, has not been sufficient and there is a need for participants to step up efforts “to meet all the more binding commitments”, the document says. Transparency among PESCO participants regarding the fulfilment of their respective commitments should be further enhanced.
In order to implement more binding commitments, collective benchmarks for defence spending should be maintained and the positive trend in increasing defence budgets should be sustained. There is also a need to bring Member States’ defence arrangements closer together by integrating EU defence tools and initiatives into national defence planning processes.
Furthermore, the availability, readiness and interoperability of strategically deployable formations must be improved and the Union’s operational effectiveness enhanced, by providing substantial contributions to the forces required for military missions and operations. Force generation issues should also be raised more systematically at the political level.
More precise objectives in areas of cooperation such as climate change, combatting hybrid threats, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, space-related aspects, energy security and maritime safety could be set in the context of the revision of the EU Council Recommendation on the different stages of implementation of the more binding commitments undertaken, and setting more precise objectives, in early 2021.
Review projects
The document also returns to the PESCO projects. When projects are found to be unable to deliver the expected results, the document recommends that they should either be relaunched or closed down, in order to ensure the relevance and credibility of all projects. Some could also be grouped together in order to increase impact, efficiency, save resources and avoid duplication, the text adds.
Proposals for new projects should have a more operational focus and short-term impact on the basis of existing capabilities, focusing in particular on joint training and exercises from the armed forces to facilitate joint deployment in the field.
In order to take better account of the results of the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), new projects will be examined and may be approved by the EU Council once every two years. Calls for projects will be issued in even years and projects approved in odd years. “A transition period is planned for 2021, during which the next call for proposals for new PESCO projects will be launched exceptionally at the beginning of March, with a deadline for the submission of proposals by the end of June, and the EU Council may agree on a new list of PESCO projects in November 2021”, the document states.
According to the EEAS, 20 of the 47 projects have already reached initial operational capability and 15 are expected to provide full operational capability before the end of 2025, including the Maritime Unmanned Anti-Submarine System (MUSAS), the Cyber Rapid Response Teams and Mutual Assistance in Cyber Security (CRRTs), military mobility and the European Medical Command (EMC). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)