ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

The European Defence Agency and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence: A 'Strange' Coalition in the Construction of a Common European Defence Discourse

European Union
Security
Constructivism
Post-Structuralism
Antonio Calcara
LUISS University
Antonio Calcara
LUISS University
European Foreign and Security Policy: Fields, Practices and Actors

Abstract

In order to gain legitimacy in the European institutional environment, the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE), thanks to public hearings, conferences, workshops, strategic documents, research papers and reports, have been able to spread an homogeneous discourse on the necessity of a common European defence approach. This “strange coalition”- between an elected parliamentary subcommittee and an intergovernmental agency- shares a common stance towards several norms that push member states to a progressive “Europeanization” of the defence field: pooling and sharing of resources, liberalisation of the defence market, dual civilian-military research and support to defence-related research through EU budget. In this paper I argue that EDA and SEDE are crucial policy entrepreneurs, able to sustain and disseminate European norms in the defence field and to present the European defence cooperation as a “non-choice” , in a context of financial austerity and decline of defence budgets. There is no other way but to cooperate at the European level in defence issues, in order to improve capabilities and to face the military and security threats of the future. This narrative has been able, so far, to counter the prerogatives of member states represented by the activities of the Council, which tend to a growing "renationalisation" of defence policies. This study is aimed to answer the following questions: What are the main features of what I call the “common European defence discourse”? What is the relation of this “strange” coalition with the supranational (European Commission) and the intergovernmental pillar (Council)? What is the legitimacy and effectiveness of the EDA and SEDE’s ideational activities? Through a discourse analysis based on official documents and reports, the aim of the article is to discover the internal logics of the common narrative on defence established at the EU level.