PESCO MEMBERS
PESCO PROJECTS
France Moves From EU Defense to European Defense by Major & Molling
"Delivering relevant capabilities in the EU is the only thing that could keep France interested in EU defense."
See the full article on Carnegie Europe
France
Portugal: A good European in search of friends by ECFR
"The changing transatlantic context further suggests that stronger engagement with Berlin on European security might be a way to capture its interest. At the moment, there is an interest in Berlin in both strengthening the European pillar within NATO and getting PESCO in the EU framework off the ground. Portugal was initially rather hesitant to endorse PESCO, precisely because of its strong NATO affiliation, but eventually decided to join in to avoid falling behind in an important future area of EU cooperation. The country would certainly be well advised to stay within the hard core of European integration to counter its peripheral geography"
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Portugal
Can France and Germany Make PESCO Work as a Process Toward EU Defense? by BIllon-Galland & Quencez
"A shared sense of insecurity has recently increased political will to deepen European defense cohesion and this has been met by the European Commission, which has presented a set of initiatives to enhance European defense cooperation over the last 18 months."
Germany
Developing the EU’s defence dimension is in Finland’s interest
By Juha Sipilä, Prime Minister of Finland
"Finland’s objective in developing defence cooperation is to advance via specific initiatives towards stronger defence cooperation. A strong stance on this is in both Finland’s and Europe’s interest"
"Finland supports an increase in EU budget funding in the defence sector."
Non-Aligned' Sweden Joins Fledgling European Military Alliance by SputnikNews
"We believe this is fully compatible with our non-alignment. We think it's good that the EU is indicating that they now want to collaborate and actually better coordinate what we do. We could become a truly important global player, both civilian- and military-wise," Wallström said as quoted by the Swedish Sydsvenskan daily."
Sweden
EU-Verteidigungspakt beschlossen: "Kein Rütteln an der Neutralität" by DiePresse
"Zur Neutralität merkte Kurz an, diese sei ein "Teil der österreichischen Identität, an der wird nicht gerüttelt. Wir sind insofern mit der Neutralität im Rahmen, was eine künftige verstärkte Zusammenarbeit im Sicherheitsbereich betrifft. Aber wir werden uns rechtlich genau ansehen, dass das Ziel der verstärkten Zusammenarbeit nicht staatlichen Regelungen, auch nicht der Neutralität, widerspricht. Sonst hätten wir von Anfang an nicht mitgemacht"."
Austria
PESCO, NATO and the government’s deception of the people by Yiorgos Koukoumas,
"Let the Anastasiades Government, the Government Spokesman and the governing DISY party, if they want and can, ideologically defend NATO, EU-NATO coupling, the deeper militarization of the European Union and the transformation of Cyprus into an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” that will be at the disposal of NATO too as its leader wants"
Cyprus
Lithuania hopes for ''military mobility'' investment into Rail Baltica, roads
"Lithuanian officials says they hope to get at least 430 million euros under constant prices (without inflation taken into consideration) from the so-called military mobility fund."
Latvian foreign minister urges bigger defence spend
“If we are serious about Nato and European defence then we need to increase defence spending. We also agree with President Trump that all nations should spend more on defence. We believe 2 per cent is the absolute minimum,” he (latvian Foreign Minister) added.
Latvia
PeSCo: The Dutch Perspective by Dick ZANDEE Head of the Security Unit, Senior Research Fellow, Clingendael Institute
"Traditionally, the Netherlands has relied more on Atlantis than on Europa for its security and defence. American participation is deemed crucial for guaranteeing European security. Therefore, NATO remains the ‘cornerstone’ of the nation’s security policy."