The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell rightly spoke before the European Parliament of the “birth of a geopolitical Europe”. As Europeans, we must learn again to fight for our values, to be armed against military threats and to assert our interests in the world.
At the end of this week, the European Council will confirm the new “Strategic Compass”. This initiative, launched during the German Council Presidency in June 2020, is intended to provide clear direction for EU security and defense policy in the years to come. For the first time, there is a comprehensive inventory of risks and threats affecting all 27 Member States.
Unlike in the respective EU countries, the foreign and security policy culture of the European Union must be based on the consensus of all 27 members. The aim is to develop a common strategic vision for the EU as an international security actor.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
At Versailles, the heads of state and government recently expressed their willingness for the European Union to assume more responsibility for its own security and for defense spending to be significantly increased. Finally!
The EU must become more capable of acting in foreign policy
The Strategic Compass serves to put these commitments into practice. We need a concrete roadmap with clear priorities on how existing instruments can be further developed by 2030 and what additional capabilities need to be built up.
The progress in implementation must be concretely measurable. Our activities should be closely coordinated with NATO’s strategic concept, which is to be decided in Madrid in June. This would offer significant added value for cooperation between the EU and the transatlantic defense alliance.
In my view, strengthening European security and defense policy in the long term means becoming more capable of acting in foreign policy. The EU must make foreign policy decisions more flexibly. The principle of unanimity significantly impedes our ability to act. Therefore, majority decisions in matters of common foreign and security policy should be made possible as soon as possible. The EU treaties offer the necessary scope for this.
Certain foreign policy decisions that are not related to military or defense policy could already be made with qualified majorities today, for example when it comes to sanctions for human rights violations.
It is also important to use existing instruments more effectively than in the past. Currently, the European Security and Defense Union consists of three core initiatives: the “Permanent Structured Cooperation”, the “European Defense Fund” and the “Coordinated Annual Review of Defense”.
The mutual assistance clause needs a clear definition
The mutual assistance clause under Article 42(7) of the EU Treaty on European Union is an expression of solidarity between the member states. In the event of an armed attack on the territory of an EU country, the other EU members are called upon to provide all the help and support they can.
However, the practical implications of this mutual assistance clause have never been clearly defined. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine now makes it abundantly clear that we need clear specifications and guidelines for the mutual assistance clause. That would give the European Defense Union a real boost.
The current crisis has shown that the European Peace Facility can strategically support our partners. Without this newly created instrument, it would not have been possible to support Ukraine with military material, including weapons for self-defense, amounting to 500 million euros so far.
A further 500 million euros have been politically agreed. As part of the EU’s civilian and military missions and operations, the European Peace Facility will in future be a crucial instrument for being able to react more quickly to crises and security policy challenges globally.
Although the EU has built up solid security and defense policy instruments in recent years, there has long been a lack of real political will to use the available funds effectively. Individual member states were often more concerned about their particular interests than a pan-European response. That should finally change with the Strategic Compass. We must strengthen our European cooperation.
Security policy is gaining importance everywhere
Denmark’s decision to hold a referendum on joining the Common Defense and Security Policy at the beginning of June, Germany’s commitment to additional defense spending, and the debates in Finland and Sweden about joining NATO all show that security and defense policy is gaining in importance across Europe. It is important that EU countries as a whole invest more and more efficiently in military capabilities and innovative technologies. Strategic capacity gaps must be identified and closed consistently.
This includes more integrating security-related activities, including cyber defense and countering hybrid threats, within the EU. It’s about developing joint armament projects of the new generation and jointly procuring military equipment.
These include the European battle tank, a European combat aircraft system and the Euro drone, to name just three examples. Reducing technological and industrial dependency without falling into national vanity is the order of the day.
It’s not about duplicating NATO capabilities
These developments should be accompanied by the development of new skills. This includes a functional, rapidly available EU intervention force. The “EU Rapid Deployment Capacity” provided in the Strategic Compass with 5,000 soldiers could be used abroad for rescue and evacuation missions – a lesson learned from the hasty withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan.
All our activities in the EU are not about duplicating NATO capabilities. Rather, it is a question of complementing them in a meaningful way and thus strengthening the European pillar within NATO.
The transatlantic alliance is and will remain the foundation of collective defense for its members. With a more effective security and defense policy based on our foreign policy strengths as a “soft power”, the European Union can come closer to its own claim of acting globally as a strategic partner and peace actor. An indispensable prerequisite for this is a strong European Defense Union.
About the author: David McAllister is Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. He was Prime Minister of Lower Saxony from 2010 to 2013.
More: Uses only credible deterrence