Putin’s war has accelerated defense discussions in Europe in three weeks. EU member states are ramping up their spending and the EU has financed the supply of arms to a country at war for the first time in its history. Thanks to Putin’s war, the EU is suddenly playing a serious role in the field of security and defence, an area where European ambitions often got bogged down in plans.
A blueprint for EU security and defense policy has now been added, the Strategic Compass, on which ministers reached an agreement on Monday. The blueprint provides, among other things, for a multi-deployable intervention force of up to 5,000 soldiers that must be operational by 2025. Germany has offered to be the first country to take the lead. The Netherlands has offered to participate in this, said Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren (D66).
There are two years of work in the plan, and it reflects a world that has rapidly become more bleak in recent years. But the timing is unfortunate. Europe’s intentions are dwarfed by the immense threat posed by Putin’s war. The Strategic Compass is a blueprint for another war. In early drafts of the plan, Russia was not even mentioned.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra (CDA) called the Compass a “watershed” and “a big step on the way to geopolitical maturity.” Member States will spend more money, an intervention force will be set up and agreements will be made in the EU about troop transport and joint procurement.
“It’s good that it’s there, even apart from the war in Ukraine,” Ollongren said. “But the war has shown that Member States in Europe must have their own security and defense capabilities.”
This is a big step towards the EU’s geopolitical maturity
In the final version of the plan, Putin’s war is already mentioned in the first sentence as an attack on the values and interests of the EU. Since February 24, Russia was written in the text, but the policy was no longer radically adjusted.
Most striking is the creation of an intervention force that can be composed according to the challenge that presents itself. The EU must also be given the means to conduct operations independently – such as reconnaissance, cyber-defence, communications and air defence. Traditionally, the US muststrategic enablers” to deliver.
Disagreement over oil embargo
The ‘Defense Capacity’ is a new version of EUBattlegroups, a combat group system that has been operational since 2007, but has never been deployed. The international units do not practice with each other and the countries that supply the military also have to pay for their deployment – that alone had a restraining effect. In the new set-up, more money must come from the joint EU pot, decision-making must be made more flexible and the units must practice together. In the long run, the EU headquarters should be able to lead the missions.
In addition to the intervention force, the EU also wants to cooperate in the procurement of equipment. The EU countries collectively spend 250 billion euros on defense, much more than Russia (56 billion), but because everyone traditionally designs their own stuff, the EU lacks economies of scale. The American and Russian armed forces have one type of tanks, Europe has 17.
EU policy is expressly intended to complement NATO’s defense of Europe. On Thursday, the heads of government of the thirty NATO countries will meet in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine and the reinforcement of defenses in Eastern Europe. President Biden will subsequently be a guest at an EU summit. The Japanese Prime Minister is seated for a special G7 meeting.
The purpose of the meetings is to demonstrate the unity of the West. EU ministers were unable to agree on an import embargo on energy from Russia on Monday. According to Hoekstra, countries that are highly dependent on Russian oil or gas stated at the meeting that they understand the desire to introduce an embargo, but that they practically do not know how to keep their societies running without Russian imports. However, there is agreement to make another 500 million euros available for arms supplies to Kiev.
Also read this interview with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on Europe’s defense ambitions
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of March 22, 2022
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