The European Council and European defence cooperation: Developments since June 2016

Briefing 12-12-2016

At its December 2016 meeting, the European Council will consider options for strengthening European defence cooperation. This paper focuses on security and defence developments since June 2016, when the European Council last addressed security and defence, in particular EU-NATO cooperation. It considers the process that led to the inclusion of security and defence on the December 2016 European Council agenda, as well as the expected outcome of the meeting.