Europarättslig tidskrift nr 2 2026
ISSN (ONLINE): 2002-3561
LEDARARTIKEL
ARTIKLAR
Open Access
EU-UK Defence and Security Cooperation: A Union Law Perspective
The Russian war against Ukraine has dramatically shifted the perspective on security and defence in Europe. Persistent instability in the Middle East, increasing volatility in both South America and across sub-Saharan Africa as well as serious uncertainty surrounding the status of Taiwan add further challenges. Remarkable changes brought on by the Trump administration to seemingly well-established American positions on foreign policy have added significantly to rapidly growing European security concerns.
Against the background of these geopolitical shifts, a new Security and Defence Partnership (“SDP”) agreed between the EU and the UK was published in May 2025 as a first step towards more formalised cooperation on security and defence.
This contribution examines the status of the increased security and defence relationship between the EU and the UK. While it is acknowledged that the SDP represents progress in the security and defence relationship between the parties, Three critical observations will be made concerning; (i) the SDP’s lack of substantial commitments; (ii) legal difficulties in actually realising what the new partnership intends to achieve and (iii) its restricted reach.
This article will also reflect on how to the EU-UK security and defence partnership may be improved beyond the SDP.
Open Access
Why the Temporary Protection Directive was Activated: Solidarity, Geopolitics, and Humanitarian Considerations
The activation of the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) in 2022 was a historic first, granting immediate protection to millions of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion. The decision stands in contrast to the EU’s response during the 2015 migration crisis, when the same mechanism remained unused. This article examines the reasons behind the Directive’s activation and assesses how the decision was justified mainly through the language of solidarity, humanitarian considerations and political responsibility toward Ukraine rather than explicit human rights commitments. Ukraine’s long-standing process of integration with the EU helped position it as part of the European political community, reinforcing the sense of EU responsibility. This finding suggests that human rights protection has a conditional nature in EU migration law. If humanitarian responses are legitimised through vague notions of solidarity and strategic interests rather than rights-based obligations, protection risks becoming dependent on political proximity and perceived belonging to the European community.
