| abstract | - At present, there is no military of the European Union, as the European integration has not developed very far in the area of defence. There have however been a number of defence initiatives, peacekeeping operations and organisations established in the context of the European Union (EU). The actual defence of the Union is the domain of individual Member States. Currently, closest to what can be called European Union military, is the rapid deployment force called European Union Battlegroups. An early attempt to integrate the militaries of Western Europe, was the failed 1952 European Defence Community. But since then many politicians, including Guy Verhofstadt, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, promised to create a European military. As 24 of the 27 EU member states are also members of NATO, some EU states cooperate on defense policy (collective security) albeit primarily through NATO rather than through the EU or aligned group (such as the Western European Union). However, the memberships of the EU, WEU, and NATO are distinct, and some EU member states are constitutionally committed to remain neutral on defence issues. Several of the new EU member states were formerly members of the Warsaw Pact.
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