As euractiv.com reads, "After decades of failed attempts, EU members signed a defence cooperation agreement in December, spurred to action by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and claims of state-sponsored cyberattacks."
The European Commission, "the bloc’s executive arm" as the site notes, decides to beef up defense expenditure for a second time in less than a year. In June 2017 its members had made plans for the mobilization of € 40 billion. A sum destined for defense so-operation.
Eleven months on, phrases and words like "military mobility", robotics, drones, tanks, helicopters and a European defense pact take center stage.
The three "no" come from Denmark, Malta and Britain, that refuse to sign the defense co-operation agreement. However, the rest of the bloc strives to make them understand that this would not mean neither would it lead to a "EU army". Moreover, "the project will complement NATO, rather than competing with it", euractiv.com reads.