I abstained on the final vote of this report for the following reasons:
It does not take into sufficient account the position of the neutral EU member states.
It takes for granted the support and association of the EU as a whole in programmes of a military alliance, even when this could be problematic, and not just for neutral EU members.
It forms part of a tapestry of moves that is meant to build into a fully fledged European defence policy for which an intelligible military doctrine is still absent, especially with the UK now being outside the scope of the overall approach.
It assumes that the momentum behind proposals for an EU security and defence policy is cohesive when it is actually being built on contingent military concerns and strategies of disparate member states. While this may make it seem that the formulation of a fully fledged military policy will consequently be more speedily accomplished, it risks leading in the medium but even in the short term to impasses like those that have been experienced during recent years in the formulation eurozone policies. Only stagnation and stalemate can be much more dangerous in the field of defence than in that of monetary policy.
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