Every week Moritz Koch, head of the Handelsblatt office in Brussels, analyzes trends and conflicts, regulatory projects and strategic concepts from the inner workings of the EU. Because anyone who is interested in business needs to know what’s going on in Brussels. You can reach him at [email protected].
The shameful end of the Afghanistan mission is followed by a political shambles, the meaning of foreign deployments is fundamentally questioned. To want to turn away from the world, to let the interference in other countries be better – that is an understandable, probably inevitable reaction to the historic failure.
But the top of the EU Commission is of the opinion that Europe cannot afford this impetus. Despite all the difficulties, Ursula von der Leyen sees the military strengthening of the EU as her next big project. The former German Defense Minister is convinced that the challenges for Europe are not diminishing because the Europeans are tired of them.
One look at the map is enough to see why foreign assignments and nation building shouldn’t be taboo for Europe. Unlike the US, the EU is not surrounded by oceans, but by trouble spots and political rivals.
The EU will also have to act with military means
Minsk uses migration as a weapon, Moscow uses energy as a leverage. The Middle East is not calming down. And America is serious about the strategic reorientation in Asia, wants to concentrate on the hegemonic conflict with China. That means: the EU will have to shoulder new tasks. Tasks that are actually alien to her as a civil power. It will be required as a stabilizer in North Africa and the Middle East. Not only, but also with military means – see Mali.
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The Commission’s internal analysis is based on two findings. First: the situation that Europe cannot defend itself is no longer tenable. Second, the troops that the EU countries can muster are rich in number but poor in force.
Closer European cooperation in the area of security and defense may at first glance appear to be a logical consequence of geopolitical changes. In fact, every step in this direction is a balancing act.
If the impression arises that the EU’s ambitions amount to weakening NATO, the project is doomed to failure, von der Leyen knows. She speaks regularly on the phone with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and meets with him for dinner.
Sometimes an outside stimulus helps to release blockages. A few days ago, US security advisor Jake Sullivan was in Brussels for talks. Europe must not get lost in theoretical debates, warned the American, but must discuss concrete measures. “The what, the how, and the when,” Sullivan put it. This is precisely what is lacking in the EU: not situation analyzes and strategy papers, but the determination to act.
More: Merkel: Europe must define its own security interests more clearly