The EU’s geoeconomic turn in defence: from a regulatory to a hybrid positive EU state

In recent decades, the European Commission has assumed an increasingly prominent role in the defense sector, leveraging its regulatory powers associated with the internal market. This role has been framed as market-making through regulation, emphasizing the shift from direct state intervention to the establishment of norms guiding governments and private actors in the name of efficiency and competitiveness. However, this article contends that such a view overlooks recent shifts in EU defense policy. Key initiatives such as the European Defence Fund (EDF), the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), and most importantly the European Defence Industrial Strategy illustrate a significant evolution, where regulatory functions are increasingly integrated with positive interventions aimed at capacity-building and defense industrial development. This marks the emergence of a positive security state at the EU level, with the Commission engaging in politically charged interventions that challenge the legal and market-based frameworks typically associated with European integration. The article demonstrates that the Commission's actions, while regulatory in nature, are increasingly embedded in political processes. The blurring of frontiers between economics of security, characterizing the global geoeconomic turn, therefore helps the Commission creep into security and blend it in the scope of EU competences. This hybridization of regulatory and political functions reshapes the locus of authority within European defense governance, where the interplay of expertise and politics redefines the Commission’s role in shaping defense policy.