There were good reasons for this. After all, NATO’s mission is the collective security of the Euro-Atlantic area and most of the bloc’s member countries are also part of the alliance. Therefore, many considered the EU becoming a major security provider to be an unnecessary duplication, if not a possible cause of dangerous confusion in the line of command in the event of an attack.
However, it’s also true that the Treaty of the EU provides for the establishment of common defense (however undefined) and for mutual assistance among member countries in the event of aggression. Moreover, for Europe, NATO has, to a large extent, meant a political and defense-industrial dependence on Washington.
Be that as it may, it’s clear that current circumstances — including what happened in the run-up to and during the Munich Security Conference — are forcing Europe to “grow up” when it comes to its own security and defense. But what should the EU be doing to build its own defense union?
The U.S. had already shifted its focus away from Europe and toward the Indo-Pacific under former U.S. President Barack Obama. The Washington establishment, both Democrat and Republican, is united in seeing China, not Russia, as its direct strategic rival — even after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression toward Ukraine. Arguably, even Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden’s support for the country could have been stronger, faster and more consistent.
Now add to that a president who is possibly willing to force a bad cease-fire, which would have terrible consequences for Europe’s security, and is also a NATO-skeptic, going so far as to threaten abandoning allies who “do not pay” — not to mention his expansionist aims over other NATO members like Canada and Denmark.
For Europe’s part, there is, of course, the temptation to only focus on things like joint weapons production or on exempting defense expenditures from the Stability and Growth Pact — as was the case with the latest informal EUCO. This makes sense. Surely, the EU must get its capabilities and defense-industrial base right, and as defense expenditures rise to unprecedented levels, we need to be spending better, together and European.
