Common Defence of EU Countries : Reality or Fantasy?

Abstract

Other countries perceive the European Union (EU) as one of the leaders in global economy and trade� This occurs in spite of the crises in the Union-migration, financial, debt crisis, etc�-or in spite of huge dynamics of economic growth in the Asian countries� Still, depending on the entity performing calculations and on the aspects included in them, the EU is considered the second, third, or fourth economy in the world� One should add that this very economy is still highly developed, competitive, and counting over 515 million wealthy consumers, and no country in the world may afford to ignore such factors� Even though factors such as strengthening economic bonds, elevating economic statistics (including trade and innovation) are incredibly important, they compose the foundation of the European Project and allow for its dynamic development, yet they constitute merely one of the aspects of what needs to be currently understood under the term "Europe"� For this is far more than that� In the course of noticeable progress towards integration of European countries under one roof, many matters were included, such as agriculture, societies, environment, energy, and finally politics and defence� It turned out that it was possible to develop many of them by way of consensus, yet for many years there were many deficiencies in the political and, above all, defence matters� An opportunity to change such a state of affairs was at the moment of adopting (2007) and implementing (2009) the Treaty of Lisbon, "in which the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy was further emphasized" (Cheda, 2018, p� 1), and then a new security policy (2016), as well as "a reconfiguration of the international order-especially in terms of EU safety environment-taking place for over a decade" (Zięba, 2017, p� 45)� Has this opportunity actually been used? Did the significance of defence initiatives increase during that time? Is it possible to observe any dynamics of the processes aiming to create the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)? Or perhaps particular interests of individual member countries are still more important, which prevents substantial to answer the question whether the indicated process is actually taking place�