France, Germany, and the Quest for European Strategic Autonomy. Franco-German Defence Cooperation in a New Era
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In the light of a more demanding security environment, but also a rare momentum for further European integration, Berlin and Paris are challenged to take their security and defence cooperation to the next level, bilaterally as well as in the EU. Progress in Franco-German security and defence cooperation is a key step towards strategic autonomy with its three dimensions: political, operational and industrial autonomy.
With seven concrete recommendations, the paper aims to contribute to establishing strategic autonomy, starting at the bilateral level to provide leadership for an ambitious European project.
The recommendations in this report are the result of a joint project by the Institut français de relations internationales (Ifri) and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Directed by the two authors, it gathered a distinguished group of French and German security and defence policy experts for three workshops in Berlin and Paris. This report and its recommendations are based upon the group’s discussions. The list of participants can be found at the end of this report. The full text is available here (Link).
IFRI and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) are organising an expert exchange on the report published in December 2017 at the Representation of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate to the EU with the following speakers:
Welcome | Representative of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate to the EU
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Barbara Kunz, Research Fellow, Ifri, Paris
Ronja Kempin, Senior Fellow, SWP, Berlin
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Camille Grand, Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment NATO, Brussels
Sven Biscop, Director, Egmont, Brussels
Please note that this event is by invitation only.
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France, Germany, and the Quest for European Strategic Autonomy: Franco-German Defence Cooperation in A New Era
How can France and Germany contribute to reaching the goal of European strategic autonomy? This key question has been guiding the work with the present report. In the light of a more demanding security environment, but also a rare momentum for further European integration, Berlin and Paris have to take their security and defense cooperation to the next level, bilaterally as well as in the EU.
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