Poland joins the EU defense pact

Poland, along with 22 other EU member states has signed the joint notification on the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) defense pact. The agreement will allow countries to cooperate more closely on security operations and building up military capability. “What we can do together, we can do better than alone. This is a historic achievement for European defense,” said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. The agreement will create binding rules to boost defense spending and require European countries to cooperate with each other when they develop and buy new military equipment. Nations could also team up on military deployments and interventions. “I'm a firm believer of stronger European defense, so I welcome PESCO because I believe that it can strengthen European defense, which is good for Europe but also good for NATO,”  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. Out of all EU member states Ireland, Portugal and Malta are still undecided whether or not to join PESCO, while Denmark decided to opt-out. The UK, which will leave the bloc in 2019, can take part in some aspect of the pact, if it chooses so, but only if such participation is of benefit to the entire EU. With the notification signed, a final decision to launch the defense cooperation framework is expected in December.