Faced with increasing and multifaceted threats, Europeans have sped up the work towards a stronger and more secure Europe. In recent years, they have demonstrated in concrete terms that European defence is built not only through a shared analysis of risks and strategic challenges but also through de facto European solidarity. When, following the attacks of 13 November 2015, France invoked, for the first time in the history of the European Union, the mutual assistance clause provided for in Article 42(7) of the TEU, Finland stood resolutely by its side, as part of a joint effort in the fight against terrorism. […]
France and Finland now call for more to be done, so that Europeans have by the next decade a stronger autonomous capacity to intervene militarily together to defend their security and defence interests, supported by a strong and innovative European defence industry and by appropriate common budgetary instruments.
In order to promote Europeans’ operational commitments where their security is at stake, France and Finland are calling for the emergence of a genuine common European strategic culture based on defence cooperation with agreed mutual dependence. All bilateral or multilateral cooperation must make it possible to deal head-on with the terrorist threat, hybrid threats and power policies. The European Intervention Initiative, launched on France’s initiative, aims to foster the emergence of a common European strategic culture and to strengthen Europeans’ ability to respond together to crises affecting their security in addition to existing frameworks, including EU or NATO operations. Läs deklarationen