Coordinative Europeanisation in EU defence industrial policy: comparative insights from the European Defence Fund and Readiness 2030

This thesis explores the evolving governance dynamics of EU defence policy. While traditionally interpreted through the frameworks of neofunctionalism or intergovernmentalism, recent institutional developments point to the rise of a new governance pattern in the EU defence policy area: Coordinative Europeanisation. The study investigates whether Coordinative Europeanisation provides a more accurate analytical lens for understanding current EU defence initiatives. To this end, it compares the design, adoption and implementation of two key European policies: the European Defence Fund (EDF) adopted in 2021, which exemplifies more traditional governance models, and the Readiness 2030 rearmament plan adopted in 2025, which is considered here to exemplify Coordinative Europeanisation in practice. This thesis adopts a comparative case study design grounded in a post-positivist epistemological framework. It begins with a historical analysis of EU defence policy integration, followed by an empirical investigation based on semi-structured interviews, archival research, and thematic analysis of both primary and secondary sources. These methods are used to apply the theory of change to the examination of the two selected policies. The findings are triangulated to assess the explanatory power of Coordinative Europeanisation.