Multimedia

External event

Roundtable

Milestone or Maelstrom? European Defence and the 2015 Summit

Given the Ukraine crisis, Russia’s resurgence and the burning crises in the South there has never been a more opportune time to discuss European defence. Yet in the face of such challenges, how do we assess the recent European Council summit on defence? Does the Council meeting represent another milestone on the path to closer defence cooperation between EU member states, or did the meeting reflect the difficulties involved in forging a truly common defence policy? Drawing on a collection of thirty-four thought-provoking essays that were published in May by the Egmont Institute, European Geostrategy and the Institute for European Studies, this roundtable discussed the summit conclusions and critically analysed the way forward.