France’s Military Importance for the European Union

A founding member of the European Union, France is nowadays still considered, alongside Germany, as one of the two „engines” of European integration. And this applies not only for the economic or social sphere, as France has also played a preeminent role in the historical process of European defence integration. Acknowledging the French contributions to the European defence project, in this paper we subject to analysis the military importance of France for the Union. Using the analysis of social documents and the case study method, we argue that this country’s high level of military integration in the European Union is not at all fortuitous, as is not due to impermanent favourable evolutions