Drivers and Impact of European Defence Market Integration: A Literature Meta-Synthesis with Economic Focus

The Ukraine war, the aftermath of COVID-19, Brexit and shifting US geostrategic interests are putting pressure on the European defence situation, strategy and budgets. The current crises expose warfare capability gaps in the European armed forces and capacity constraints of the European defence industry after decades of the peace dividend. More nations are calling for stronger engagement of the EU in the defence sector to overcome these challenges and complete the European defence sector integration that started in the late 1990s. It is estimated that more cooperation in defence procurement and research could save up to 30% of the current €290 bn total EU27 defence budgets. Can this combination of recent factors provide new impulses towards a unified European defence market, more cooperation on defence procurement and industry consolidation? We conducted a literature review (‘meta-synthesis’) of 172 journal articles, studies and think-tank papers since 1995 to build a holistic picture. The analysis aims to describe the progress and challenges of European defence market integration from an economic viewpoint. It provides future researchers with a basic understanding of defence industrial challenges, motivations and economic drivers of European defence integration as well as of reasons for resistance and potential scenarios.