At the suggestion of the Italian military, for example, experts from several European armed forces are developing a new armored infantry vehicle. On German initiative, six other EU countries are involved in setting up a European Medical Command to guide and ensure medical care during EU military operations, such as in Africa. Until now, all member states participating in such operations have had to renegotiate the terms for each and every new mission.

Nine months ago, EU defense ministers first agreed on 17 such cooperation projects, and the numbers continue to rise. Initial projects include the establishment of a network of logistics centers in Europe, so that each individual army, large or small, needn’t continue organizing its own foreign missions. Then there is the new military training certification center, to ensure that in the future, all armies have congruent training standards – so that, for instance, Estonian tank grenadiers receive gunnery training on a par with that of their German and Spanish counterparts.

Europeans have become even more aware that they can no longer rely on US military leadership to resolve conflicts in their neighborhood, such as the Balkans, the Middle East or Africa. They must themselves become capable of action. All EU cooperation decisions made in the past two years have served this objective.