PeSCo: The Italian Perspective

Italy is likely to remain a strong supporter of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PeSCo) despite the changes brought about by the new government on other dossiers like migration. The armed forces, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the national defence industry are keen to participate in or lead capability development projects within PeSCo. Moreover, from the Italian perspective this initiative ought to be connected with the European Defence Fund (EDF) and the Coordinated Annual Review of Defence, to exploit synergies among these elements – and particularly the EDF co-funding. At the same time, Rome does not expect to establish strong linkages between PeSCo and the Framework Nation Concept developed within the Atlantic Alliance, although Italy does favour broader NATO-EU cooperation.