Permanent structured Cooperation on defense could be launched by end 2017

On 7th September in Tallin the European Union ministers of defense had an informal meeting. The main subject of the meeting was how to move ahead with PESCO on defence, that could possibly start by the end of the year. Federica Mogherini stated that there’s a overall consensus on the main lines of PESCO and that there are a lot of proposal on how to launch the cooperations mechanism. Between now and the end of September, ministers will meet again with the aim to be ready by mid-October to present to the EU High Representative and the Council the basis for a common notification interest of member states. When the European institutions will receive the full list of countries interested in the project, there will be a second phase that will last three months in wich all the parts will negotiate for all the details. The High Representative of th EU Federica Mogherini expressed enthusiasm seeing the rapid progress, that testimony excellent teamwork by alla he Member State and European institutions. Mrs Mogherini pointed out that the EU had already received proposals for some 30 projects that could be developed under the PESCO mechanism.