EU states aim to pool public money into a fund to help pay for joint military projects, a senior EU official said on Thursday, in potentially one of the most significant steps to underpin an emerging European defense union.
The fund would form part of Franco-German efforts to develop a more integrated European defense to respond to threats on Europe's borders, as security becomes a unifying issue for the European Union after Britain's decision to leave the bloc.
Nineteen countries including France, Germany, Italy and Spain will start talks next month on the so-called Cooperative Financial Mechanism, or CFM, which could be running sometime next year, said the official, who briefed EU defense ministers gathered in Brussels on Thursday.
Britain had long blocked EU defense integration, fearing the development of an EU army.
The fund, whose monies would be owned by national governments, would be the third part of a financing plan involving a proposed research facility led by the European Commission, the EU executive, and money from the EU's common budget for defense.
The amount of money in the fund has yet to be set and contributions would be voluntary, the official said, but it would allow countries to borrow from it as long as they repaid at a later date. The Commission could also pay into the fund.