A preliminary investigation of the burden sharing aspects of a European union common defence policy

Abstract

The move towards a common European defence policy raises a multitude of multidimensional and complex issues. As pointed out in a recent paper (Hartley, 2003), these issues include economic aspects ranging from the role of the European defence industrial base to the costs of a common defence policy, and therefore the issue of burden sharing. This paper, assuming that the provision of common European defence to the participating members has the characteristics of a pure public good, approaches the burden sharing issue raised by Hartley (2003) by calculating a simple benefit share index that is then compared with the contribution made by each country to the costs of the common defence. Assuming the existence of a European Defence Union, the results indicate that some members are under-contributing while others are over-contributing in relation to the benefits derived.