European Union nations are set to achieve a 70-year-old ambition to integrate their defences on Thursday, signing a pact between 25 EU governments to fund, develop and deploy armed forces together after Britain's decision to quit the bloc.
First blocked by the French parliament in the 1950s and later by Britain, which feared an EU army, the pact aims to end the squandering of billions of euros by splintered defence policies and Europe's heavy reliance on the United States.
"Today is an historic day," said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who helped push through Franco-German plans for defence integration. "This turns the European Union into a credible security provider," she said on arrival at the summit where EU leaders will inaugurate the pact.
France's President Emmanuel Macron said "concrete progress" had been made, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the pact would make the EU more agile abroad. "This is not about replacing Nato, it is about being more flexible and using our resources better," Rutte told reporters.
Leaders will formally endorse the pact - known in EU jargon as Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO - at 1845 CET (1745 GMT), in one of the most tangible steps in EU integration since Britain voted to leave the bloc. Defences integration was revived by France and Germany, with support from Italy and Spain, in a show of unity after Brexit.
A bigger impetus came from failings in the 1990s, when EU governments were unable to act in the Balkan wars and relied on US-led Nato to stop the bloodshed on their doorstep.
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