Per la Pau / Peace in Progress

On 15 November the foreign and defence ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain issued a joint communiqué which argues the EU needs new "civilian-military structures" for overseas operations. Taking into account the economic crisis, it also called for more "pooling and sharing" of EU defence hardware, including ballistic-missile defence, drones, and airlift capacities. Last year the UK blocked the creation of a new operational headquarters (OHQ) for EU military missions in Brussels.