ФРАНЦУСКА, НАТО И „ЕВРОПА ОДБРАНЕ
FRANCE, NATO AND “L’EUROPE DE LA DÉFENSE”

Summary/Abstract: A long-lasting French ambition was to achieve a deeper integration of the EU in the field of security and defense, i.e. to create the so-called “l’Europe de la défense”. The legacy of Charles de Gaulle, which consisted of a more independent and daring conduct of foreign affairs and its highlight – the French withdrawal from NATO’s Integrated Military Command in 1966 – paved the way for France to be the key advocate of a greater military integration of Europe. Even more, it constituted the prerequisite for an emergence of a true “Europe de la defense” as it clearly appears that the existence of NATO and its role in Europe is not compatible with a rise of a more powerful and autonomous European defense. However, the 2009 decision to reintegrate all NATO structures provoked a rupture with the legacy of de Gaulle. Consequently, it has also compromised the plan of a militarily more integrated EU. Such an effect has been recently confirmed in the report presented by the French former foreign minister Hubert Védrine. That weakening, not to say discard, of the “l’Europe de la defense”, which inevitably condemns the EU to an incomplete political integration, necessarily puts into question both the nature and the future of the European edifice.

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