Summary of an analysis prepared by EuroDefense France (edited by Lt Gen Jean Paul Perruche, President EURODEFENSE-FRANCE)
Recent changes in the context of world security are having a dangerous effect on the defence arrangements of European countries. An increased number of conflicts and threats at Europe's borders at a time when European defence budgets have been dangerously decreasing over more than 20 years now, together with the unavoidable disengagement of the USA, are the main causes.
This uncertain situation should incite the nations of the European Union to mutualise their forces and capabilities, but it is painfully obvious that any political will to do so is sorely lacking at present. Given this situation, a EuroDefence France working group (which reports to a pan-EU conference in Luxembourg this week) stresses the interest of producing a European White Paper on security and defence, emphasising the conditions for its feasibility, identifying the obstacles to be overcome, but also the opportunities to be seized, as well as an outline of such a White Paper's content and the possibilities for its exploitation.