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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 05/04
The European Union and armaments Getting a bigger bang for the Euro
Burkard Schmitt
August 2003
Like a hackneyed news item, the idea of creating a European armaments agency has continually haunted the process of building European defence. Already at Maastricht in 1992 it was included in annexes to the Treaty (in the form of a WEU declaration). It has now been spelt out in full in the draft Constitutional Treaty proposed by the Convention in June 2003. Even better, at the European Council in Thessaloniki, heads of state and government decided to accelerate the process of creating such an agency, from 2004, independently of the results of the forthcoming IGC. Whatever the reasons for this haste – genuine urgency or negotiating tactic – one is bound to be satisfied with the importance now attached to the armaments dimension of European security and defence policy.
