Samenvatting

This study examines the role the European Union Battlegroups can play in accomplishing EU security goals. In doing so, an assessment is made of the capabilities and shortcomings of the Battlegroups in light of EU defence ambitions. The security environment of the European Union is changing. Since the Cold War, the EU has not had to cope with traditional ways of conducting warfare. Instead, the EU Member States must cope with new threats such as terrorism. Naturally, a new security environment requires a new approach to conflicts. Recently, the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Global Strategy have outlined new defence ambitions for the EU in order to counter threats. Amongst other priorities, these documents include the ambition to enhance military capability cooperation, capability building, and the ambition to create a larger role for the EU Battlegroups. In order to better understand what role the Battlegroups can play in accomplishing security goals, their capabilities and shortcomings are discussed. An analysis of the EU military operation Artemis serves as a proxy for studying the capabilities and shortcomings, due to the similarities between Operation Artemis and a Battlegroup operation. In terms of capabilities, the Battlegroups are characterized by their rapid deployment during times of crisis. The EU forces are designed to carry out both military and civilian operations, thanks to a large variety of possible deployment scenarios. Furthermore, the Battlegroups provide a positive contribution to enhancing cooperation and capability building between contributing EU Member States. The main shortcoming of the Battlegroups is the lack of funding for EU military operations, making their deployment less attractive due to higher costs. Other obstacles include the incoherence of EU forces and EU Member States’ lack of military capability. The study concludes by arguing that in the future, the Battlegroups are more likely to play a larger role in accomplishing EU security goals. The Battlegroups’ capabilities align with the EU ambitions, since the EU has articulated the ambition to create a larger role for the Battlegroups. Thanks to the implementation of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), the EU is taking action to remove the obstacles that prevent Battlegroup deployment.

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