Over dinner, leaders talked about how to make the EU’s barely used mutual defense clause — Article 42.7 — work in practice, while avoiding any suggestion it could replace NATO’s Article 5 security guarantee. That discussion comes at a sensitive moment for European capitals, which are trying to respond to growing uncertainty over Washington’s commitment to European security without sending the signal — either to the U.S. or to Russia — that they are undermining NATO themselves.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was among those who came out strongly in favor of making Article 42.7 operational, according to a senior EU official, who added that Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides presented ideas on the subject to the other leaders over dinner.
On Friday, leaders turned to the bloc’s next seven-year budget. The debate has been sharpened by the economic pressure of the war and by calls for the EU to become more ambitious — and more independent from Washington.
The EU budget amounts to around 1 percent of the bloc’s wealth, with capitals like Berlin opposing an increase and others like Warsaw, as well as EU figures like top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who think that, in this geopolitical context, that is not enough.
Still, with so many disagreements between governments, even reaching an agreement by the end of the year, as Costa is pushing for, looks tough.
“All about the U.S.”
The summit, held across a narrow stretch of Mediterranean dividing Europe from the Middle East, also exposed a broader vulnerability: Europe’s struggle to define a geopolitical role at a time when crises in the Gulf, Russia’s war and uncertainty over U.S. policy are all converging.