EU Battlegroups: What Contribution to European Defence?

Progress and Prospects of European Rapid Response Forces

The European Union (EU) has repeatedly failed to develop effective military capabilities because its members were either unable or unwilling to contribute troops to joint military operations. To overcome this shortcoming, EU member states adopted the military "Headline Goal 2010" (HG 2010) in 2004, whose core element were the EU Battlegroups. This review raises the questions of how the Battlegroups should be developed in the future. The EU's operational experience, lessons from recent crises, such the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in 2010 or the uprising in the Arab world including Libya in 2011, but also the level of ambition for EU security and defense policy as adopted in 2008 and the Lisbon Treaty suggest where the EU needs to direct its efforts over the next decade and which instruments will be most usefull.

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