EXPLAINING THE EMERGENCE OF EUROPEAN UNION BATTLEGROUP CONCEPT: THE TEST FOR EUROPEAN INTEGRATION THEORIES

The study intends to contribute to the discussion of European defence cooperation by testing two – process-centric and state-centric – EU integration theory’ explanations of Battlegroup policy pattern. The first explanation rests on the argument about spillover logic of development of operational set of EU military forces and the importance of supranational regulation. The second takes as its reference point an intergovernmental nature of the Common Security and Defence Policy, with Battlegroup Certification process being driven by self-interested policy choices made by European nations. The importance of this policy is determined by the fact, that it is the first and the only experiment of the Union to jointly establish military force, which is to be deployed by the common decision. Correspondingly, the attempt must be made to find a place of this empirical object within the milieu of International Relations, and, more specifically, European Integration theory. I assume, that two alternative explanations – Neo-functionalist an Intergovernmentalist – must be employed, as they can provide comprehensive alternative outlooks on studied phenomenon. The study is conducted in logic of Congruence analysis, which allows for confronting of two theoretical perspectives. The data is obtained from unclassified sources – official European and country reports on the certification progress and documents setting standards for certification and evaluation, including the NATO documents, and via expert survey. The results suggest that Intergovernmentalist account is more accurate in its explanation of empirical facts, although a set of strong arguments can be found on Neo-functionalist side.