The goal is to create an operational intervention force with a maximum of 5,000 soldiers starting from 2025. What the newspaper El Pais reported when it viewed the Strategic Compass prepared by the EU Commission on security and defense
The EU she is dressing in khakis. More and more.
The organization created to guarantee peace in Europe after the Second World War is moving towards a militarization that Brussels considers essential to survive in an increasingly unstable and dangerous global context.
For the first time in its history, the EU is considering organizing military maneuvers starting in 2023 to increase its ability to act forcefully in the hotspots of its direct influence area.
The proposal is contained in a confidential document, to which El PAIS had access, served as the basis of the negotiations of the European foreign and defense ministers for the EU’s geostrategic orientations over the next decade.
The document, dubbed the Strategic Compass, supports an unprecedented leap in the EU’s military capacity with the aim of having the necessary strength to “promote its vision and defend its interests”. The initiative was presented to the members of the European Commission on 10 November by Josep Borrell, Vice-President of the Commission and High Representative for Foreign Policy.
However, as this is a confidential document, the details of the proposals have been reserved for the foreign and defense ministers. The headquarters of the European Council enters military mode at a time of great turbulence around the EU, from the eastern flank (Belarus and Ukraine) to the Maghreb and the Sahel.
“This is not the world we Europeans have chosen or prefer, but the world we face,” says the 28-page confidential document, which aims to mark a turning point in the use of force at EU level. “From 2023 we will organize regular exercises, including naval ones,” 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 exercises are intended to be the basis for the creation of a truly operational intervention force, which could include up to 5,000 troops by 2025. Brussels thus wants to go beyond the so-called concept of a European battalion, a theoretical availability of up to 1,500 multinational people in uniform that has been operational since 2017 but has never been activated due to lack of political will, lack of financial resources for its mobilization and absence of joint preventive training.
The organization and command of the maneuvers would initially be carried out by national units. But it would pass in 2025 to the EU General Staff unit created in 2017 with the aim of becoming a real headquarters, but which is not yet fully operational.TAKE COMBAT OPERATIONS ALSO
Until now, this headquarters (called Military Planning and Conduct Capability) has taken command of non-combatant missions focused on training in third countries, such as Mali, Somalia or the Central African Republic. But the goal is that he will also take command of future combat operations, for which he will expand his staff, which started with 25 soldiers and could grow to 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 conduct regular exercises to strengthen our mutual assistance in the event of armed aggression, in accordance with Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty”, states the Strategic Compass, referring to the legal basis that, similar to that established in NATO, allows 27 member states to jointly respond to an attack. He adds that “starting from 2022 this will also include maneuvers in the IT field”.
The proposals also point to joint financing of EU civil and military operations starting in 2023, which would involve using the EU budget.
The 28-page document, on the table last November 17 for the approximately 50 ministers (of Foreign and Defense) gathered in Brussels, also details the timetable for strengthening EU resources in the face of hybrid, cyber and space threats.
In 2022, the goal is to establish defense mechanisms against hybrid attacks and, from that same year, to develop preventive and dissuasive diplomacy against attacks in cyberspace. In 2023, a unit would be created to systematically collect data on incidents related to information manipulation or virtual interference by third countries.
And finally, in 2025, if the foreseen timetable is respected, the EU will have a military rapid reaction force of up to 5,000 men and women who can be deployed in numbers commensurate with the size of each mission. Borrell insisted that “the mission will determine the number of troops needed, not the other way around.” For civilian missions, from 2023 the EU aims to be able to deploy a team of up to 200 fully equipped experts within 30 days.
The movement towards military cooperation within the EU is encouraged by the growing hostility of countries disengaging from multilateralism and the withdrawal of the United States as the global guardian of Western interests. “The return to power politics is the most significant change in international relations after three decades of strong economic interdependence that should have reduced tensions”, notes the EU’s Strategic Compass project. A MILITARY CAPACITY WITH THE COMPLICITY OF NATO
The text, which will be the subject of lengthy discussions until its adoption by the 27 member states in March 2022, considers it necessary to “develop a European Union that acts as a guarantor of security”. To this end, it plans to exploit Article 44 of the Treaty on European Union, which would allow the launch of military operations unanimously approved, but in which only partners who so wish would participate.
The development of this military capacity has so far been blocked by countries fearful of weakening NATO, which is the real shield of the Old Continent against external aggressions. But the reluctant side lost strength with the UK’s exit from the EU. And the recent US spasm in Afghanistan and the progressive aggression of neighbors like Belarus and Russia has softened resistance to some degree of European strategic autonomy.
On the other hand, France has also moderated its ambition for a practically autonomous European defense. Paris accepts that European capabilities will have to be complementary to NATO, whose military and nuclear umbrella remains indispensable. The ambition of a European army appears to have been shelved, but the creation of a joint capability capable of putting out geostrategic fires closer to home is gaining ground.
“We need to be able to act faster, more robustly and more flexibly,” a diplomatic source sums up the new goal. The new scenario requires a better understanding between the EU and the Atlantic Alliance which will be pursued in a joint declaration later this year or early next.
(Extract from the foreign press review by Epr Comunicazione)
