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Preference convergence, functional pressure and supranational entrepreneurship: explaining the launch and design of the EU's military assistance mission to Ukraine

in: European Security, first published 26.05.2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2025.2506515
Open access

In October 2022, the EU established a military assistance mission in support to Ukrainian armed forces (EUMAM Ukraine). This article addresses two questions: First, how did the EU succeed in establishing EUMAM Ukraine, also in view of the fact that earlier attempts to establish an EU military training mission in Ukraine had failed? Second, what explains the mission’s unique design as compared with previously launched EU training missions? While a reformulation of EU member states’ security preferences driven by the heightened threat of an aggressive Russia is certainly necessary to explain the creation of EUMAM Ukraine, we argue that the launch and design of the mission can only be fully understood through a neofunctionalist approach, taking into account the effect of functional pressure and the activism of EU actors. The article shows how the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and the European External Action Service seized an initiative from member states and set the foundation for the mission of unprecedented scope and complexity. This finding illustrates the importance of Brussels-based actors in driving EU security and defence policy forward in times of existential security crisis in Europe.

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