Le implicazioni del primo ricorso alla c.d. 'clausola di mutua assistenza' del trattato sull'unione europea

In the aftermath of the ISIS terrorist attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, France invoked for the first time the mutual assistance clause provided by Art. 42, para. 7, TEU, seeking for aid and assistance from other Member States in accordance with Art. 51 of the UN Charter. The attacks were qualified as an armed aggression on French territory. In this Insight, some key issues concerning the interpretation and the implementation of this clause will be explored, such as its scope, its relations with other systems of collective self-defence, and the legal qualification of for-cible measures subsequently adopted by the EU Member States against ISIS in Syria. All in all, the invocation of Art. 42, para. 7, TEU seems to entail a backlash on the progressive development of a common EU defence policy.