The renewed cooperation agreement marks the limits of the EU’s dreams of “strategic autonomy”: NATO continues to lead on defense matters.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the world became a threat to the democracies of the Euro-Atlantic zone. It is therefore no wonder that the EU and NATO want to continue and expand their increasingly close cooperation since the end of the Cold War. On Tuesday, the leaders of the two organizations in Brussels approved their joint declaration on cooperation in all areas of security policy – above all, support for Ukraine in defending against Russia’s war of annihilation.
“Ukraine must be given all the military equipment it needs to defend its country and which it can handle,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. On Friday next week, the so-called Contact States Group of Ukraine at Ramstein Air Base in Germany will meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Resnikov to discuss what new weapons systems the Ukrainian armed forces should receive, but also where to find spare parts and ammunition for already delivered artillery, air defense and other weapons are missing.
EU in the passenger seat
But this meeting, along with the key passage of the EU-NATO declaration, illustrates just how much the Union is chasing its mantra-like claim of “strategic autonomy”. Because US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is inviting Ramstein – and the EU will not be represented there as such, in contrast to major member states such as Germany and France. And the text of the declaration makes clear that the EU will continue to depend on NATO for military self-defence matters. “NATO continues to be the base of the collective defense of its allies and essential for Euro-Atlantic security”, says point 8 of the text. “We recognize the value of a stronger and more capable European defense that makes a positive contribution to global and transatlantic security and is complementary and interoperable with NATO.”
This declaration of willingness to cooperate between the EU and the North Atlantic Alliance has no consequences for neutral Austria. “We encourage the widest possible involvement of non-alliance EU members in their projects,” the text states.
Von der Leyen explained that the EU is not only working on the tenth package of sanctions against Russia, but is also preparing sanctions against the regimes in Belarus and Iran because they support Moscow in its war effort.
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(“Die Presse”, print edition, 01/11/2023)