It talks about the eventual framing of a common defence policy which may, in time, lead to a common defence.

The eventual framing of a common defence policy should allow Member States to play different roles - which they will do in any case - and to make different contributions.

It is not yet clear if any decisive moves will be taken in 1996 to start serious work on what the Maastricht Treaty describes as the eventual framing of a common defence policy.

And Article J.4 says: 'The common foreign and security policy shall include all questions related to the security of the Union, including the eventual framing of a common defence policy.'

On 31 July 1992, the Commission declared: 'Specific and binding assurances from Sweden should be sought with regard to her political commitments and legal capacity to fulfil the obligations.(on) the eventual framing of a common defence policy.'

Opening provisions of the Treaty on European Union stated that the Union should assert its identity on the international scene "through the implementation of a common foreign and security policy which shall include the eventual framing of a common defence policy".

Although a proposed merger between the EU and the nuclear-armed Western European Union (WEU) was postponed, the Treaty still provides for 'the progressive framing of a common defence policy [which] will be supported, as Member States consider appropriate, by cooperation between them in the field of armaments' .