Governance and Accountability of the Readiness 2030 Framework: From Political Vision to Institutional Capability
The Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 represents not only a new phase in Europe’s defence integration but the emergence of a genuine institutional architecture for managing collective security. For the first time, the European Commission and the High Representative have jointly designed a governance model that translates strategic intent into measurable implementation. The White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030 establishes the guiding principle: readiness must be planned, funded, and monitored through a shared administrative framework. The Roadmap 2030 formalises this by assigning institutional roles across the EU’s defence governance ecosystem — the Commission for financial and industrial coordination, the European Defence Agency (EDA) for capability management, and the European External Action Service (EEAS) and High Representative for political and diplomatic oversight. This framework transforms defence from a loose intergovernmental dialogue into a governed system of shared accountability. It embeds strategic management and performance measurement into Europe’s defence policy, ensuring that collective commitments are accompanied by operational delivery. In doing so, Readiness 2030 marks the shift from declarations of intent to a permanent governance structure — an institutional engine for deterrence.