EU military operations budget under strain: the crisis, the EU and its Member States

Economic stability in the eurozone
is essential to the stability not
only of the European Union, but of
the world economy as a whole.
The current economic crisis is
posing serious challenges not
only to the stability of the
European economy, but also to
the EU’s role as a global actor.
The efficacy of European external
action is seriously affected by the
scant financial resources
allocated to foreign and defense
policies in the EU 2014-2020
budget, thus widening even more
the existing
expectations/capabilities gap of
EU foreign policy.
The paper investigates the effects
of the economic crisis on the EU
2014-2020 budget, in particular on
the funding mechanism of
European missions - so far one of
the most prominent EU
international activities. After
having assessed the magnitude of
the impact of the economic crisis
on the EU external action, some
recommendations are provided to
achieve a more rational
distribution of EU resources.