In December, the European Council is set to dedicate its final meeting of 2013 to a discussion of security and defence matters. The Common Security and Defence Policy, thus renamed in 2007 by the Lisbon Treaty, is the latest incarnation of a longstanding ambition to create a shared European policy for defence and security, and has so far suffered from the same ailment that ultimately crippled its predecessors: a mismatch between declared ambitions and the practical and political investment in its implementation on the part of EU member states.
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