Europe's leaders have called for a new report into how to boost their joint defence and security role in the world.
At a summit in Brussels they gave EU foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton a brief to produce proposals to strengthen the bloc's long-standing defence and security co-operation to "improve the availability of the required military capabilities".
A summit declaration said that, in a changing world, the EU was being asked to take on increasing responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security. It said EU leaders were committed to improving the effectiveness of their Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) as a "tangible" contribution to international crisis management.
CSDP missions and operations have been carried out in the Western Balkans, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan and the South Caucasus, always in close co-operation with organisations such as the United Nations and Nato.
Baroness Ashton, the EU's "High Representative" for foreign affairs, will look into the EU's rapid deployment ability for civilian and military personnel and equipment.
She has also been asked to study how to strengthen Europe's defence industry by improving competition.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article