Brexit and UK Defence: An Explainer

EU defence cooperation has been a stated ambition of EU Member States since the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. The intergovernmental nature of this policy area, however, has meant that its evolution and development has been entirely dependent upon political will and the convergence of competing national interests among the EU Member States, in particular the UK, France and Germany. Equally, it has been quick to lose impetus when political will has been lost and in the face of other challenges, such as the 2008 global economic crisis.

In the last few years there has been a renewed enthusiasm for defence cooperation which has seen the agreement of several mutually reinforcing initiatives that will progress the EU defence project, including an expansion of EU military planning capabilities, the launch of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), and the creation of the European Defence Fund (EDF), which will see the direct use of the EU budget for military purposes for the first time in the institution’s  history. These developments are frequently raised within the context of Brexit, with questions asked over the nature of UK-EU defence cooperation going forward. 

This short briefing examines the legal basis for EU defence, the UK’s views, what has been agreed within the EU since the 2016 Brexit referendum and what the UK’s departure from the EU will mean for the UK’s armed forces.