EU takes initiative with new defence plan

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders launched their most ambitious defence plan for decades yesterday, agreeing a multibillioneuro weapons fund, shared financing for battle groups and allowing a coalition of the willing to conduct more missions abroad.

It comes as tensions with Moscow and an inward turn in Washington have pushed Europe’s governments to confront years of division over military cooperation.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who threw his weight behind a common European defence during his election campaign, called the steps ‘‘historic’’.

‘‘The conclusions that were adopted a few moments ago in defence are up to the job. We must consider the historic nature of this,’’ Macron told a news conference.

The measures could nevertheless revitalise Europe’s inefficient defence industry, allow the EU to send more peacekeepers to flashpoints and send a message to US President Donald Trump that the bloc wants to pay for its own security.

The European Commission has said it will put forward at least ¤1.5 billion ($NZ2.3 billion) a year from the bloc’s budget for research and purchase of assets. It is expected to help develop and pay for helicopters, drones and an array of weaponry.

The fund could generate some ¤5.5 billion a year after 2020 if enough governments come forward with funds, EU officials said, stressing that national governments would remain the owners of all equipment.

Nearly two decades after France and Britain, the EU’s main military powers, helped form a common European foreign policy, the Continent faces a growing range of security threats, from Islamic militants to a more assertive, hostile Russia that has seized territory in Ukraine.

While the threats have increased, defence research spending in the EU has fallen by a third, or more than ¤20 billion, since 2006.

Britain has long blocked more ambitious steps, fearing the creation of an EU army.

But with its decision to leave the EU, Germany is emerging as France’s biggest partner and both want to see reforms across the bloc’s defence industry.