PESCO: The Belgian Perspective

Belgium was one of the first countries of the European Union to discover, in 2010, the abstruse provisions concerning PESCO tucked away in a corner of the Lisbon Treaty. Its first reaction to this unidentified object, which emerged unannounced from the meanderings of the European Convention (2001-2003), was one of astonishment. The astonishment then gave way to misunderstanding, which inevitably turned into concern (we fear that which we do not understand). And last of all, when the PESCO was finally launched in December 2017, a feeling of relief ultimately prevailed…