The European Union is drawing up plans to help countries repel a military attack, with or without its superpower ally, the United States.
According to sources familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, EU officials are studying how to coordinate a joint response in case any member state comes under attack, whether by conventional forces, a cyberattack or the kind of militarized migration that Belarus has deployed along its border with Poland.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, informed the bloc’s leaders about this initiative during a dinner on Thursday at the summit in Cyprus, as stated yesterday by the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa.
The goal is to specify what would happen if an EU country activated the bloc’s little-known mutual defense clause, according to Kallas. “There needs to be a common understanding of how the clause would be applied in practice,” he said. “It must go from the abstract to the real.”
This effort highlights Europe’s urgency to prepare for a possible end to US security guarantees, which sustain NATO and protect the continent.
In recent months, President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from NATO, attempted to annex the Danish territory of Greenland, and declared war on Iran without consulting his allies.
Kallas said officials will also look at what would happen if the clause is activated at the same time as NATO’s Article 5, which states that an attack against one military member of the alliance is an attack against all.
EU leaders backed the initiative, said Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
Cyprus has a strong interest in the bloc strengthening its joint defences, given that the country is not a member of NATO and is the closest EU member to conflict zones in the Middle East.
In fact, in early May, an Iranian drone attacked a British military base on the island. “There are several questions,” he told reporters yesterday morning, referring to the bloc’s mutual defense clause, Article 42.7. “For example, if France activates article 42.7, which countries will be the first to respond?”
“There needs to be a common understanding of how the clause would be applied in practice.”
Antonio Costa, president of the European Council
a stage
The EU finds itself in a delicate situation: its leaders are trying to take greater responsibility for their own security without giving the impression that they no longer need NATO’s protection.
Across the EU, governments are investing billions in weapons, but the continent’s defense still depends on US military backing through NATO.
“NATO remains the cornerstone of collective defense,” Kallas said in his statement.
This tension hangs over the joint defense work of the EU. According to close sources, at Thursday night’s meeting, the leaders offered a relatively moderate response to Kallas’s presentation, as they do not want to stir controversy before NATO’s annual summit in July.
The EU’s joint defense initiative is currently studying aid that complements NATO, such as sanctions or financial and humanitarian aid, Kallas said.
Article 42.7 of the EU Regulation establishes that if a Member State is “a victim of armed aggression on its territory”, other countries have “the obligation to provide aid and assistance by all means at their disposal”.
In theory, the wording would seem to go beyond NATO Article 5, which only commits a member to take measures it deems necessary.
But the EU lacks the military power and infrastructure of NATO, which is closely linked to the United States.
The EU clause has only been activated once, after the 2015 terrorist attacks in France. “The treaty does not clarify what happens, when and who does what,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s top executive, told reporters yesterday.
As reported by Bloomberg, EU ambassadors and defense ministers will also carry out simulations of the mutual defense mechanism. These exercises will mimic the decision-making process that would be followed if a Member State requested military support from the rest of the EU.