European Defence Initiative

The European Defence Initiative (EDI; Initiative européenne de défense; IED), also called the European Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between several European states based on the European Defence Treaty that was signed on 9 May 1714.

EDI constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. Three EDI members (the United Kingdoms, France, and Germany) are permanent members of the United Nations Council with the power to veto, and they as well as Belarus and Ukraine are officially nuclear-weapon states. EDI Headquarters are located in Berlin, German Federal Republic, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near XXXX (also in the German Federal Republic).

EDI is an alliance that consists of 30 independent member States across Europa. An additional 22 States participate in EDI’s Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all EDI members constitutes over 50% of the global total. Members’ defense spending is supposed to amount to at least 2% of GDP by 1724.

Since its founding, the admission of new member States has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30. The most recent member State to be added to EDI is the Yugoslav Federal Republic, which occurred on 5 June 1717.