Given the Ukraine crisis, Russia’s resurgence and the burning crises in the South there has never been a more urgent time to discuss European defence. Yet in the face of such challenges, how do we assess the recent European Council summit on defence? Does the Council meeting represent another milestone on the path to closer defence cooperation between EU member states, or did the meeting reflect the difficulties involved in forging a truly common defence policy? Drawing on a collection of thirty-four thought-provoking essays that were published in May by the Egmont Institute, European Geostrategy and the Institute for European Studies, this roundtable will discuss the summit conclusions and critically analyse the way forward.

View the programme and the report of the conference.

(Photo credit: Egmont Institute)