This article provides a contextual overview of the various intergovernmental instruments and mechanisms that define EU defence and security cooperation in general and defence procurement in particular. The main hypothesis is that the legal substance pertaining to EU defence procurement has emerged from the political and strategic level of decision and has been progressively imbedded into various layers of EU policy-making, through a slow but steady trickle-down effect. The article has a twofold approach, providing a conceptual analysis of the main driving forces behind defence cooperation at EU level, along with an attempt to determine the extent to which the European Defence Agency has contributed to the evolution of the EU framework in this field, by promoting coordination mechanisms that have ultimately evolved into concrete regulatory solutions for defence procurement.
Keywords: EU defence procurement; European Defence Agency; Intergovernmental cooperation; EU security integration; Directive 2009/81/EC; Code of Conduct.