On 11 December 2017, the Council adopted a decision establishing Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), less than a month after receiving a joint notification by member states of their intention to participate.

The 25 member states participating in PESCO are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. On 13 November 2017, ministers from 23 member states signed a joint notification on the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and handed it over to the High Representative and the Council. On 7 December 2017, Ireland and Portugal also notified their decision to join PESCO.

The decision establishing PESCO foresees that the Council, by unanimity of the representatives of member states participating in PESCO, will adopt, further decisions and recommendations in a number of areas, including to establish:

• the list of projects to be developed under PESCO (expected early 2018)
• a common set of governance rules for projects, which could be adapted for individual projects
• the general conditions under which third States could be invited to participate in individual projects.

Read full press release. More details in Czech are available in an article by Euractiv.cz.