Summary of the event hosted by INCIPE and the General Director of Defence López del Pozo
June 2023
As in all areas of governance, defense reflects the will of the citizens and how they perceive it. As a result, Spain's presidency of the Council of the EU starting from July up until December 2023 is an opportunity to promote an agenda that reflects Spain's priorities in security and defense. Spain chairs the coalition that will be followed by Belgium and Hungary and will require significant coordination efforts due to the different interests of these member states.
In general terms, there is a perceived decline in support for multilateralism as a tool for boosting cooperation, which is being replaced by bilateral relations. Despite being a tool that yields good results and facilitates understanding between the parties that make up the agreement, it can be detrimental to the creation of larger alliances with greater capacity to face more ambitious challenges. Therefore, Spain intends to enhance NATO's role in the framework of the common security and defense policy and to integrate it with already established European Union agreements such as PESCO. France, during its presidency in the first half of 2022, intended to make progress in the same direction, which was limited by the outbreak of the Russian invasion. Given the prolongation of the conflict and the impact it has had, a significant part of European efforts in security and defense have been aimed at minimizing the impact of the war, thus neglecting other issues of high importance.
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