PeSCo: The Polish Perspective

Poland’s position in the debate on launching PESCO was with no doubt special. Poland criticised the concept of making PESCO an exclusive defence core of the EU and advocated not only an open character of PESCO, but also linking it with NATO as closely as possible. This firm stance led to concerns that Poland might eventually choose to stay outside PESCO. Yet, Poland joined at the very last moment. Soon thereafter, Poland announced that it would join 9 PESCO projects and focused on promoting closer EU-NATO cooperation in line with a concept of reinforcing NATO through European defence. Polish interest towards the European Defence Fund has also started to increase as Poland began to seek different ways of transforming its Defence Technological and Industrial Base…