AGI The foreign and defense ministers of the 27 European Union countries have approved the new European Defense Strategy, of which the Constitution of is the fulcrum a force of about 5,000 soldiers, to intervene in cases similar to the Kabul airport evacuation, and an increase in military spending to be able to conduct autonomous military interventions by 2025.
“It’s not the answer to the war in Ukraine, but it’s part of the answer,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said at the end of the Council. “When we started work, we could not have imagined that the situation would be so serious at the last moment of approval and that Europe would have to face such a big challenge,” he added.
We worked on the Strategic Compass for two years.
Its purpose is to guide the development of the EU security and defense agenda for the next decade to address the full range of threats and challenges we face. #EUdefense #FAChttps://t.co/dAkYeL0lHV pic.twitter.com/mmHtmd8K56
Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 21, 2022
“The EU is not sufficiently equipped to face the current threats and challenges,” says the preamble in the document approved today, officially known as the Strategic Compass. And to equip yourself, it is proposed to use the tactical groups created in 2007 to build this reaction force of 5 soldiers, increase military spending (today at 1.5%) and better coordinate them to avoid duplication.
The strength of the 5,000 soldiers will have “land, air and sea components” and will be equipped with means of transport to “rescue and evacuate European citizens trapped in the conflicts”.
“The current hostile environment requires a qualitative leap. The Compass offers us an ambitious action plan for more security and defense in the EU for the next decade,” Borrell reiterated. In this way, the EU is arming itself with an “ambitious action plan” to strengthen its security and defense policy by 2030, with concrete targets and deadlines, and having greater capacity to act and work together with its partner to safeguard its values and interests.
The EU believes that with greater strength and capacity in the military sphere, it will be able to do so “make a positive contribution to global and transatlantic security”, in complementarity with NATO, which “continues to constitute the basis of the collective defense of its members”.
In addition, the EU will be able to deploy 200 fully equipped Common Security and Defense Policy (PSDC) mission experts, including in complex environments, and conduct regular exercises on land and at sea. Military mobility will be enhanced and the PSDC’s civilian and military missions and operations will be strengthened by promoting faster and more flexible decisionmaking and ensuring greater financial solidarity.
La Bussola also plans to introduce a cyber defense policy, a set of tools to stop manipulation and interference with information from abroadDeveloping a space strategy for security and defense and strengthening the EU’s role in maritime security.
To meet these demands, Member States commit to significantly increasing their defense spending and strengthening Europe’s technological and industrial base. To this end, the EU will provide greater incentives for Member States to work together to build capacity and invest together, including to bridge strategic gaps and reduce technological and industrial dependencies.
The current hostile environment requires a quantum leap forward. Together with the EU foreign and defense ministers, we have just adopted the Strategic Compass.
The Compass gives us an ambitious plan of action for stronger EU security and defense over the next decade. https://t.co/UZcI9V5irg
Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 21, 2022
“Today, the military expenditures of all European countries amount to around 200 billion euros, 1.5% of GDP. It even declined rapidly until 2014, when it started to climb to 1.5%. But we have to invest more. And I’m sure everyone will understand that if we want to drive defense innovation, we need capacity to better deal with situations like the one we’re facing now in Ukraine. And at 1.5% of GDP, that’s not enough, Borrell explained.
“We need to spend more and we need to spend better. Better means avoiding duplication and gaps. We are now working to investigate these gaps in depth and where they are. Where we don’t have the tools and means to react and what we lack and what we have two or three times that it’s not effective,” explained the head of European diplomacy.
“The two hundred billion is more or less four times Russia’s military spending, overall we spend about four times as much time as Russia, but certainly not the same efficiency,” the Spanish diplomat underlined. “Two hundred billion is China’s military spending, overall we spend more than China, but twentyseven different parts is certainly not the same as a single integrated military structure,” Borrell concluded.