Friday

29th Mar 2024

Opinion

Metsola: EU security and defence union needs to 'step up'

Listen to article

The world is changing faster than many thought possible. Vladimir Putin's tanks rolling into Ukraine on 24 February 2022 meant that the geopolitical sands shifted in Europe and the rest of the world. On the one hand, the Kremlin's threat to our peace has united us and has given us the courage to stand up for the values-based project that the European Union was always meant to be. On the other hand, it made us realise that peace and democracy is not a given and that our security architecture is at stake.

This crisis has required our union to take unprecedented and decisive steps to reduce our dependencies and to strengthen our strategic autonomy and resilience. The return of war on our continent has accentuated the need to create a real European Security and Defence Union.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Fortunately, many of the building blocks are already in place. The EU Strategic Compass for Security and Defence together with the Defence Investment Gap Analysis make up a solid basis to fortify our security and defence architecture by 2030. Increased defence spending and collaborative investments will target structural obstacles, such as defence underinvestment and industrial as well as capability gaps, that have persistently weakened European defence through the years, and that has been highlighted in the current context.

However, it remains vital that we implement urgent actions to strengthen European defence in the immediate term. Establishing an EU Rapid Deployment Capacity of up to 5,000 troops, facilitating live exercises on land and sea, enhancing military mobility in Europe and beyond, designing stronger crisis-management missions and operations, and developing more rapid and flexible decision-making processes are all steps in the right direction.

Notwithstanding the somewhat slow start and uneven speed of delivery by certain member states, the EU has been able to provide unprecedented support to Ukraine, amounting by October 2022 to some €3.1 billion worth of lethal defensive military equipment. On the request by Kyiv an EU training mission for the Ukrainian military forces, covering issues ranging from medical support to cybersecurity and cyber-defence, will complement this.

However, this has resulted in a pressing need for member states to replenish their stocks of key military capacities. To this effect, it is important to emphasise that improving coordination on defence procurement is critical to addressing capability gaps. This will require us to work even more closely with the European defence industry.

Furthermore, it will be imperative that we take a holistic approach. We have done well to ban Kremlin propaganda tools. Yet, we know that Russia continues to weaponise information and to push disinformation and misinformation. Therefore, strengthening European military-related capabilities must be topped up with EU ability to react and counter malign influence, as well as to respond to Russia's attempts to weaponise basic commodities. Our focus on building stronger capabilities should span the entire spectrum from cyber to energy.

If we want to create a real European Security and Defence Union, it is crucial that member states — including Germany — are on the same page. Implementing Chancellor Olaf Scholz's pledge to increase Germany's defence budget to 2 per cent of GDP and to invest €100 billion in defence procurement would be a significant boost to the objectives of the Strategic Compass, especially when taking into consideration the fact that the country's industrial defence base is capable of delivering some unique capabilities.

At the same time, the Russian war on Ukraine necessitates a shift in the German and some other European nation's historic reservations to play a prominent role in the European security architecture. New solutions are needed to for member states to supply Ukraine with heavy armoury, tanks and air defence systems, while sharing the costs among each other.

From the start, we have been clear that the EU's defence policy is not there to compete with NATO but rather to complement it. Countries or organisations that stand for the values that underpin our European way of life, and the rules-based international order, should not be regarded as competitors, but as mutually reinforcing allies. This is why we must also ensure synergies and complementarity between the Strategic Compass and the recently adopted NATO Strategic Concept.

I am proud of our union's strong response to Putin's unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine. By adopting several packages of hard-hitting sanctions against Russia in record speed, we know that Putin and his allies are already starting to feel the heat. Yet, more still needs to be done. The EU has no choice but to quickly learn the lessons of this terrible war. In assessing our strategic environment, we need to act in unison — with greater coherence and a common ability to safeguard life in Europe, as we know it. For the European Parliament this is not a question, it is a necessity and a call for action. We have no choice but to step up.

Author bio

Roberta Metsola is president of the European Parliament. This opinion piece is part of The Berlin Pulse, Körber-Stiftung's guide to German foreign policy.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

EU plans to jointly invest in defence capabilities

EU countries need to refill stockpiles after several member states supplied weapons to Ukraine in its fight with Russia, and to phase out existing Soviet-era weapons systems, and reinforce air defence.

Metsola becomes youngest EU Parliament president

Metsola's win was actually secured on Monday - after a deal was struck by the largest three political parties, the centre-right European People's Party, the Socialist and Democrats and the liberal Renew Europe.

Joined-up EU defence procurement on the horizon?

Disputes between member states, notably Germany, highlight the lack of coordination among national industrial capabilities for a European Defence Industrial Strategy — which may include the EU's first ever defence commissioner.

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Column

EU's Gaza policy: boon for dictators, bad for democrats

While they woo dictators and autocrats, EU policymakers are becoming ever more estranged from the world's democrats. The real tragedy is the erosion of one of Europe's key assets: its huge reserves of soft power, writes Shada Islam.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us