Government hopes to engage Ireland in new EU military framework
Europe Letter: Pesco initiative is not an EU army but may niggle at neutrality fears
Irish Defence Forces in a mowag tank during an exercise in the Glen of Imall: Irish involvement in Pesco is a significant means of enhancing our Defence Forces’ capabilities. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
When EU foreign and defence ministers meet in Brussels on Monday, a special signing ceremony will be held to launch the next phase of growing European military co-operation. Twenty-two states will pledge themselves to embark on what has been christened in the acronym-rich world of political and security co-operation Permanent Structured Co-operation on security and defence (Pesco).
Pesco, a Franco-German initiated project, is a creature of the Lisbon Treaty (articles 42 (6) and 46 of the TEU), a framework for resource-pooling and enhancing the effectiveness of member states’s cash-strapped defence forces, particularly their interoperability and research programmes, to better equip them for missions under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).