Recommendation to the Council and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy concerning the Implementation and governance of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO)

The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted an own-initiative report Radosław SIKORSKI (EPP, PL) on a European Parliament recommendation to the Council and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy concerning the implementation and governance of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO).

Members considered that permanent structured cooperation (PESCO) is an important step towards achieving the objective of progressively developing a common EU defence policy, leading to the establishment of a common defence.

The report recommends, inter alia, that the Council and the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy should:

- consult Parliament on the review of the PESCO and ensure that Parliament's views are taken into account in order to ensure greater accountability, transparency and control;

- implement the Union's strategic vision, define common threats and strengthen the operational dimension of PESCO;

- prepare a White Paper on the security and defence of the Union;

- ensure coherence between the different EU defence initiatives and operations;

- encourage participating Member States to move from a strictly national view of defence to a European approach and to make structured efforts to increase the use of the European collaborative approach as a priority, as no individual pMS has the potential to address identified capacity shortfalls alone;

- increase the EU’s budgetary ambition for the strengthening of defence capabilities, notably through the sufficient financing of the future EDF and Military Mobility in the upcoming multiannual financial framework (MFF);

- ensure that the PSC is effectively used as an instrument towards a sustainable and effective EU defence cooperation, improvement of defence capabilities and interoperability as a common objective, in line with the ambition of greater strategic autonomy of the Union;

- focus PESCO on constructive projects with a genuine European strategic dimension to strengthen Europe's defence industrial and technological base, while stressing the importance of a small number of strategic projects which should be prioritised as they lay the foundations for a more integrated European defence;

- ensure that key capabilities such as future key land, sea, air, cyber and other platforms for the armed forces of the Member States be brought under PESCO or at least be closely connected to it;

- enhance the coherence of EU defence planning and development tools and initiatives;

- reaffirm the central role of the PESCO secretariat as a single point of contact for all projects and invite the secretariat to carry out regular situation updates on the progress of projects;

- clarify the role of the Political and Security Committee in the PESCO process, which is not provided for by the TEU, and ensure, in this context, the important role played by the European Union Military Committee (EUMC) in the provision of ad hoc military advice;

- examine the establishment of an EU Council on Defence based on the existing Foreign Affairs Council in defence ministers format, which is also the EDA ministerial Steering Board and the PESCO format of EU Defence Ministers, in order to guarantee the prioritisation of resources and effective cooperation and integration among the Member States, as appropriate.

In general, Members believe that deepening defence cooperation between Member States at EU level should go hand in hand with strengthening the powers of scrutiny of Member States' parliaments and the European Parliament. The European Parliament should, together with the Council, exercise legislative and budgetary functions, as well as political scrutiny and consultation as provided for in the Treaties.