Traité de Lisbonne - De l'assistance mutuelle à la défense mutuelle: Oscillations et interprétations

The comparative study of the mutual assistance clause featured in the Treaty of Lisbon with other legal obligations of mutual defence (NATO and WEU) leads to a series of issues regarding the extent of its application, its interpretation, and the extent to which it may be called upon. The power of the Atlantic Alliance, the differences in commitment, the statutes of the Union's member States and the degree of automatic reaction make the area of solidarity more complex, all the more so because this comes in to play where the response to terrorism is concerned. In the absence of clarification, flexibility remains appropriate from the moment that it is the States giving the « interpretation » and « fixing » the rules of the game.