Brussels Europe is threatened and must learn to defend itself – if necessary, militarily: This is the basic idea behind the EU’s new security policy guidelines. The “Strategic Compass”, as the document is officially called, was adopted by the European foreign and defense ministers on Monday and is intended to send the signal to the world that Europe is ready to rearm. Civil power, that was once: The European Union now also wants to become a military power.
“The EU is surrounded by instability and conflicts and confronted with war on its external borders,” says a current draft of the paper, which is available to the Handelsblatt. This “increasingly hostile environment” is forcing Europe to make a “quantum leap”. The Strategic Compass calls for the EU to strengthen its “ability and willingness to act” and improve its “presence, effectiveness and visibility on the world stage”.
The plans are highly topical given the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Europe “is more united than ever before,” write the Brussels strategists. A circumstance they want to use to turn the EU into a defense community.
Brussels has produced cloudy declarations of intent in abundance in recent years. What distinguishes the strategic compass from other EU documents is the fact that it names concrete measures to strengthen Europe’s defense preparedness: by 2025, the EU is to provide a rapid reaction force with 5,000 soldiers.
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It is possibly the first step towards a European army. Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) even offers Bundeswehr forces for the intervention force. This is the “military heart” of the new EU security strategy, she said on Monday.
The Strategic Compass also includes a commitment to increased defense spending. The armed forces of the EU states are to hold joint exercises as early as next year, which should also serve to make the mutual promise of assistance from the EU treaties more credible.
Better access to private capital for defense companies
In addition, the strategic compass envisages targeted support for the European armaments industry, and cross-border cooperation in the development of new weapon systems is to become “the norm”. To this end, the EU is proposing to exempt joint armaments projects from VAT. Strategic Compass announces that the Commission will make a corresponding proposal next year.
Defense companies should also have better access to private capital, for example through the involvement of the European Investment Bank. On this point, the EU is making a remarkable about-face.
Until recently, Brussels was still discussing whether arms manufacturers should be given a negative investment label and thus effectively ostracized. The armaments industry feared being cut off from credit. Now she can hope for state welfare.
By 2025, the EU is to provide a rapid reaction force with 5,000 soldiers. It is possibly the first step towards a European army.
(Photo: dpa)
The strategic compass has been worked on in Brussels for two years, under the leadership of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Member States’ expectations were not particularly high. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has given the strategic compass a completely new relevance.
“Russia’s attack on Ukraine demonstrates a readiness to use the highest level of military force, regardless of international legal and humanitarian considerations,” the document said. Cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, energy blackmail attempts and aggressive nuclear threats were also part of the Kremlin’s arsenal. “These actions pose a serious threat to the European security order and to European citizens.”
Continued arms deliveries to Ukraine
The Ukraine war also occupied the EU foreign ministers at their meeting in Brussels on Monday. Borrell accused Russia of committing war crimes. “They destroy everything, bomb and kill everyone indiscriminately,” he said, referring to the destruction of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) spoke out in favor of distributing Ukrainian refugees across Europe. “Everyone has to take in refugees,” she demanded.
The EU wants to continue supplying arms to Ukraine. The amount of 500 million euros provided for this is to be increased by a further 500 million. The “Peace Facility” used for this purpose is also highlighted in the Strategic Compass as an important instrument of European security policy.
More on the Ukraine war:
Praise for the military elements in the new security strategy comes from the European Parliament. “To be a global security actor, the EU’s foreign policy strengths must be complemented with ‘hard power’ capabilities,” David McAllister, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told Handelsblatt. However, the EU must coordinate closely with NATO.
Ironically, the EU leaders want to discuss the guidelines for more strategic independence during the visit of US President Joe Biden to Brussels. Biden will first visit NATO and then the EU on Thursday to demonstrate the unity of the West.
The USA has an ambivalent relationship to the European aspirations for autonomy. On the one hand, Washington has long demanded that Europe take more responsibility for its own security and increase defense spending. On the other hand, the US wants to prevent the EU from building parallel structures to NATO, which could lead to a weakening of the transatlantic alliance.
In the strategic compass, the EU is therefore trying to allay these fears. Cooperation with NATO should be expanded, for example in the form of “parallel and coordinated military exercises”.
In Washington, however, the plans are viewed with skepticism. “I don’t think the EU can become strategically autonomous,” says Eliot Cohen, security expert at the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But if the Europeans now increase their defense spending, the poison will be sucked out of the transatlantic relationship.”
More: The EU is laying the groundwork for a defense union – but the path to get there is rocky