The EU turns khaki. Increasingly. The organization born to guarantee peace in Europe after World War II is entering a militarization that Brussels considers essential to survive in an increasingly unstable and dangerous global scene. For the first time in its history, the EU plans to organize military exercises starting in 2023 with a view to enhancing its ability to act forcefully in the hot spots in its closest area of influence.
The proposal is contained in a confidential document, to which EL PAÍS has had access, which this Monday will serve as the basis for the European Foreign Ministers and Defense Ministers to begin negotiations on the geostrategic orientation of the EU for the next decade.
The document, baptized as Strategic compass, advocates an unprecedented leap in the EU’s military capacity with the aim of having the necessary force to “promote its vision and defend its interests”. The initiative was advanced last Wednesday to the members of the European Commission by Josep Borrell, vice president of the organization and high representative of Foreign Policy.
But since it is a confidential document, the details of the proposals were reserved for the Foreign and Defense Ministers who meet on Monday and Tuesday in a joint session that will also include a working lunch with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The seat of the European Council is put into military mode at a time of great turmoil throughout the EU environment, from the eastern flank (Belarus and Ukraine) to the Maghreb or the Sahel.
“This is not the world that Europeans have chosen or that we prefer, but it is the one we have to face,” says the confidential document, just 28 pages that aspire to mark a turning point in the use of force at the community level. “Starting in 2023, we will regularly organize maneuvers, including naval maneuvers,” says one of the objectives of the Compass which, once adopted by the European Council in March next year, will guide the EU’s foreign and defense policy.
The maneuvers are intended to be the basis for the creation of a truly operational intervention force, which as of 2025 could have up to 5,000 military personnel. In this way, Brussels wants to overcome the so-called concept of the European battalion, a theoretical availability of up to 1,500 multinational uniforms that has been operational since 2017 but has never been activated due to lack of political will, financial resources for their mobilization and the lack of joint training. previous.
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The organization and command of the maneuvers would initially be the responsibility of national units. But it would pass in 2025 to the unit of the EU General Staff created in 2017 with the aim of becoming a true headquarters, but which is not yet fully operational.
Also take on combat operations
Until now, that headquarters (called Military Planning and Execution Capacity) has assumed command of non-war missions focused on training in third countries, such as Mali, Somalia or the Central African Republic. But the objective is for it to also assume command of future combat operations, for which its workforce will be expanded, which started with 25 soldiers and could reach more than 150.
The objective of the maneuvers will clearly be to have a defense force capable of acting if necessary. “We will continue to carry out regular maneuvers to strengthen our mutual assistance in the event of armed aggression, in accordance with article 42.7 of the EU Treaty,” states the Geostrategic compass Alluding to the legal basis that, similar to what is established in NATO, allows the 27 member states to jointly respond to an attack. And he adds that “from 2022, maneuvers in the cyber field will also be included.”
The proposals also point to joint financing of EU civilian and military operations from 2023, which would involve the use of the EU budget.
The 28 pages of the document that this Monday will have on the table the fifty long ministers meeting in Brussels (Foreign and Defense) also details the calendar to reinforce the EU media against hybrid, cybernetic or space threats.
In 2022 it is intended to establish defense mechanisms against hybrid attacks and from that same year, develop a preventive and dissuasive diplomacy against attacks in cyberspace. In 2023, a unit would be created for the systematic collection of data on incidents related to information manipulation or virtual interference by third countries.
And finally, in 2025, if the planned schedule is met, the EU will have a rapid reaction military force of up to 5,000 men and women who can be deployed in numbers according to the size of each mission. Borrell has insisted that “it will be the mission that determines the number of troops needed and not the other way around.” For civilian missions, from 2023 the EU aims to be in a position to deploy a team of up to 200 fully equipped experts within 30 days.
The advance in military cooperation within the EU is encouraged by the growing hostility of countries that distance themselves from multilateralism and by the withdrawal of the United States as the world guardian of the interests of the West. “The return to a politics of power is the most significant change in international relations after three decades of strong economic interdependence that was supposed to have reduced tensions,” says the project of Strategic compass of the EU.
A military capability with the complicity of NATO
The text, which will be the subject of long debates until its adoption by the 27 Member States in March 2022, considers it necessary to “develop a European Union that acts as a security provider.” To achieve this, it is proposed to exploit Article 44 of the Treaty of the Union, which will allow the launching of military operations approved unanimously, but in which only the partners who so wish will participate.
The development of this capacity for military action had hitherto crashed against the blockade of the countries that fear to weaken NATO, which is the true shield of the Old Continent against external aggressions. But the reluctant side lost steam with the UK’s exit from the EU. And the recent scare of the United States in Afghanistan and the progressive aggressiveness of neighbors such as Belarus or Russia has softened the resistance to a certain European strategic autonomy.
On the other side, France has also tempered its ambition for a virtually autonomous European defense. Paris accepts that European capabilities must be complementary to NATO, whose military and nuclear umbrella remains essential. The ambition of having a European army seems parked, but the establishment of a joint capacity capable of putting out the closest geostrategic fires is making its way.
“We need to be able to act faster, more robust and more flexible,” sums up the new objective a diplomatic source. The new scenario requires a better understanding between the EU and the Atlantic Alliance, which will be tried to translate into a joint declaration at the end of this year or the first of next year.
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