Battle rages over EU defense pact
EU may miss out on expertise without US and Britain
BRUSSELS: A diplomatic tussle has broken out over the European Union’s flagship defense cooperation pact, amid warnings the bloc could cut itself off from major allies like the US and post-Brexit Britain. London and Washington want their defense companies to get involved with projects launched under the deal, but the EU is sharply at odds over what the rules should be for non-members to take part. A number of ministers and diplomats have said that if the EU excludes non-members it risks sacrificing expertise on the altar of principle, just as fears about Russian threats to European security are running at postCold War highs.
Brussels launched “permanent structured cooperation on defense”, known as PESCO, last year to great fanfare. The aim was to unify European defense thinking and to rationalize a fragmented approach to buying and developing military equipment. There is broad agreement among the 25 states signed up that non-EU countries should be allowed to contribute to some of the projects. But a group of four major states-led by France-want to set tough conditions to limit participation, dividing them from a bloc of 13 — led by the Netherlands-who favor a more inclusive approach.
Evil in the details Portuguese Defense Minister Jose Alberto Azeredo Lopes told AFP “the evil is always in the details-it’s very very easy to stress consensus concerning third state participation but it’s very difficult to define the conditions”. Lopes said Portugal backed the Dutch approach of seeking cooperation from allies who can bring added value, whether it be established NATO players like the US and UK, or other countries like Brazil. Across the divide, France leads Germany, Spain and Italy in arguing for a focus on promoting EU “strategic autonomy”-reducing the bloc’s decades-long reliance on the United States for its defense.
They say the rules for third countries must not undermine the main purpose of PESCO, which is to promote defense cooperation between the 25 EU countries taking part, arguing that there are other forums for third countries to cooperate. But a number of diplomats and officials in Brussels said the approach smacks of protectionism by countries with large defense industries-in particular France-as it would limit market access for British and US contractors. The US ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, warned the EU earlier this year not to “fence off” American, British or Norwegian defense companies. Such a move could “splinter” the transatlantic security bond, she said. Adding to the lure, the EU is planning to vastly expand its defense budget from 2021, allocating some 13 billion euros over seven years to research and develop new equipment-up from less than 600 million euros in the current budget.
Cyber threat Moreover, officials warn that without the US and Britain, the EU may miss out on expertise and information that would improve its defenses. One PESCO project, to work on making it easier to move tanks and troops around the bloc, has already run into difficulties because it cannot consult the United States, which has decades of experience in moving its forces to bases around Europe. “Shutting out potential partners at this stage is something we don’t think makes a lot of sense,” said a diplomat from one of the countries supporting the “inclusive” approach.
The risk is even greater when it comes to cyber defense-a conflict domain of growing importance which can ignore traditional national borders. Lithuania, which suffers thousands of cyber-attacks a year, most blamed on Russia, is leading a PESCO project to build up an intervention team to help countries hit by electronic warfare. Edvinas Kerza, the country’s vice-minister of defense, said working with countries with strong cyber capabilities like Britain and the US would strengthen the effort.
“It’s obvious for me that I need to have a very good link, very good cooperation-not only sharing information, but practical cooperation with their authorities,” Kerza said. Brussels officials are wrangling over the final terms of third-country involvement in PESCO in the hope of agreeing a deal that EU foreign ministers can approve at a meeting in November. But officials told AFP that the divisions are such that this target may be missed. Officials from potential partner countries say they need clarity about the rules they would be asked to sign up for. They have warned that if they cannot go through PESCO they may work around it to reach bilateral deals-dealing a major credibility blow to the EU’s flagship defense project. “The real trick will be that we raise the bar high enough that everyone can agree on it but not so high that third countries say ‘that’s too high and we’ll go around PESCO’,” an EU diplomat said.—AFP