The Socialist and Democrat’s manifesto mentions defence in its third chapter, point 18, entitled “Preserving Europe’s place in the world”.
The EU “must take greater responsibility for its own security and defence”, it says. This will be done by implementing “a strong Common European Security and Defence Policy to complement NATO”.
The Socialists sum up their position on the defence industry in a single paragraph. They support its development “through targeted and smarter spending, more joint procurement of defence products, closer cooperation on intelligence and greater cooperation on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection”.
The party stresses the need for Europe to ‘speak with one voice on foreign policy’, in particular by strengthening the role of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in defending the EU’s values and interests in the world.
This does not mean that consensus should prevail. On the contrary, the manifesto recommends “moving more towards majority voting in certain policy areas”.