Military of the European Union

The military of the European Union comprises the various cooperative structures that have been established between the armed forces of the member states, both intergovernmentally and within the institutional framework of the union; the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) branch of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).

The policy area of defence is principally the domain of nation states, and the main military alliance in Europe remains the intergovernmental North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which includes 22 of the EU member states together with four non-EU European countries, Albania, Iceland, Turkey and Norway, as well as the United States and Canada. The development of the CSDP with regard to the existing role of NATO is a contentious issue. The military form of European integration has however intensified in the beginning of the 21st century, bringing about the deployment of numerous CSDP operations and the establishment of EU battlegroups. The latter have however never been engaged in operations, and other, recent examples of military integration, such as the European corps, gendarmerie force and air transport command, are intergovernmental, and outside the institutional framework of the union.