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In 2015, the member states of the European Union had 17,000 tanks of 37 different models. The United States had 27,500 but only nine models. The same applies to combat aircraft and tanker aircraft. In many EU countries, the rapid deployment capacity of fighter jets and helicopters or for transporting vehicles and troops was below 50%. Amid waste and duplication, European defense still stubbornly clung to the old notion of national sovereignty.
Little had changed since the failure of the EDC, the European Defense Community, in 1954. An internal Commission study, commissioned by thenPresident Juncker, ruthlessly exposed fragmentation, implicit weaknesses, major inefficiencies and exorbitant costs, especially when compared to the US. It was estimated that cooperation between countries would not only lead to increased efficiencies but also savings of at least €20 billion per year.
Not entirely unprepared
Even then, Putin’s threat (the invasion of Crimea was in 2014), which soon added to that of ISIS in the heart of European capitals, had pushed the Union into deep reflections on a common defense and called into question the NATOfirst option, who delegated everything to the Atlantic Alliance. This debate, started seven years ago, allows the EU not to be totally unprepared for the war in Ukraine today, but more importantly helps to understand the acceleration towards a common defence.
A chapter on defense and security has been included in the 20212027 multiannual budget with a dowry of 13 billion, including almost eight for the new European Defense Fund, to drive integration by funding joint projects proposed by consortia between three companies different countries. To this fund was added the European Peace Facility (EPF) with a further 5 billion euros, drawing on existing instruments.
Small change compared to the 1,100 billion of the EU budget and lower than the initial ambitions, but in any case a very important political signal, the first concrete step towards a common defense that still meets with understandable resistance. It is not just about protecting the national military industry and protecting patents and strategic information: for a Member State it is about deciding whether to send its soldiers to risk being killed and not necessarily to protect itself defend their country, bound by ties of identity and belonging.