Europe is experiencing an unprecedented energy crisis since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started. This is highlighting the challenges that the continent is facing, especially concerning energy. This is one of the reasons why energy security plays a central role in the common security plans of the EU and NATO allies.
Since 2009, the European Defence Agency (EDA) has promoted and supervised a series of initiatives to improve interoperability between the Member States in joint operations involving the employment of helicopters. The Helicopter Exercise Programme (HEP) has so far produced sixteen joint exercises, which have progressively gained wider participation, with eight countries (France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Portugal) providing their infrastructures for the operations.
On Monday 29th August 2022, the German Chancellor gives one of the founding speeches of the future Germany’s EU policy. Four years after Emmanuel Macron’s Sorbonne speech, Olaf Scholz drew in sand 4 pillars of upcoming changes for the EU as a geopolitical creature and global power. But just " noting a change of era does not yet make a programme " (Mennerat, 2022) and since EU already operate deep change at its levels. In this second part, this paper will intents to explore from a legal point of view what such a doctrine could implies for EU’s defence and security future but also for it bilateral and multilateral cooperation, regarding the most substantial proposals made the German Chancellor to build a new German’s impulsed EU policy.
The security environment in Europe has and is still experiencing significant changes in its configuration. If the 2016 referendum and the United Kingdom’s exit from the Europe- an Union – the so-called Brexit – significantly altered the nature and level of defence cooper- ation on the continent. Seemingly in the long term, the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine reminded all Europeans how not cooperating with countries sharing the same values and principles was not a strategically sensible approach and even created unneces- sary risks for the concerned nations.
The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), put into motion by the Maastricht Treaty, was supposed to underpin the EU's actorness and strengthen its defence capabilities. CSDP brings ‘an operational capacity to deploy civilian and military missions abroad’ (EEAS, 2022). Consequently, when it comes to interoperability per se, it should be considered from two perspectives: the technical and 'political' ones. The former envisages enhancing the cooperation among land forces on the ground while the latter grows in reaching coherence, efficiency and, even more critical – solidarity in pursuing the agreed strategy (Strategic Compass, 2022).
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