EU Independent Defense: Development And Limitation

Since 1950s', European countries determined to follow the path of integration. After 50 years'development, integration has made remarkable achievements in economic sphere, and it has undoubtedly occupied an important pole in the field of world economy nowadays. However, with the evolving international situation, European countries are not satisfied to play a role in the world economy only. In order to increase the voice in the field of international politics, in 1993, the European Union propose "it will implement a common foreign and security policy (CFSP), including a common defense policy which could move toward common defense" in "Maastricht Treaty", which announced the establishment of the European Union. Since then, EU independent defense was put on the agenda. However, until 1999 before the outbreak of Kosovo war, the EU still made an endless bickering over the EU independent defense. in the Kosovo war, EU's inadequate performance aroused EU to accelerate to develop its own defense forces. In the same year, EU set the goals of founding defense European and forming rapid reaction force in Cologne Summit and Helsinki Summit. In the new century, EU independent defense has entered a rapid development track. First of all, EU achieved the "Helsinki Primary Goal" in 2003, which is in order to set up the armed forces which symbolize the European independent status. And then, in order to improve its military strength, EU reorganized or created some large-scale defense groups, this is not only to guarantee the modernization of the forces, but also to enhance its international competitiveness. Secondly, the Nice Summit determined to set up Political and Security Committee, Military Committee and Military Staff, the foundation of these departments undoubtedly improved the efficiency of EU independent defense. In a word, since its launch, the EU independent defense has made impressive achievement.However, the development of EU independent defense is not a smooth sailing, there are lots of limitations or difficulties can't be ignored. Firstly, it is the impact of national sovereignty and national interests. Due to security or defense is related to the core areas of national sovereignty, any country won't give up it easily. At the same time, in order to obtain larger national interests, the member states establish the EU through co-transferring the national sovereignty. But the member states will first consider their own national interests when the EU's policy is inconsistent with theirs. Secondly, it is the resistance of the EU policy-making mechanism. The EU's treaty stipulates that when the important events occur, the EU's voting is "unanimous". It respects the views of the member states, but it is not conductive to respond quickly to the international crisis or conflict for EU. Although the "qualified majority voting " (QMV) mechanism was introduced, but its scope was strictly limited. In addition, the development of EU independent defense is deeply affected by the lack of military capability of EU. Although EU has military power, there are lots of problems, such as the shortage of army's number, the disadvantage of weapons and equipment, the lack of unified, effective command structure and long-range mobility, and lack of strong financial support. EU's military action is serious limited by all these problems. Finally, the limitation is from the trans-Atlantic relations and the relationship between Russia and Europe. As for the EU independent defense, the America's attitude is to allow its development, but it mustn't undermine NATO's position in Europe. In fact, to some extent, the EU independent defense is coincidence with NATO. Whereas the NATO obtained the survival value after it made a strategic adjustment in the new century. Therefore, the relation between the EU independent defense and NATO or the USA has become an important obstacle to the development of EU independent defense.As an important pole in the field of world economic, EU must find a position in the pattern of world politics which is commensurate with its economic status. In order to achieve this goal, EU must develop its own capability of external action, but if EU want to have the capability, it's necessary to develop the independent defense force. Thus, despite the limitations and difficulties, the EU independent defense can still run-in among the member states and the relation with external, it must move on.