SECURING EUROPE IN A POST-COVID WORLD

This December, the EU’s biggest defence conference will see military experts and policymakers gather to discuss the evolving security challenges that COVID-19 has created, and how these can be dealt with.

Speaking ahead of the upcoming European Defence Agency (EDA) annual conference, in December, Chief executive Jiří Šedivý explains why this year’s event - and its theme of Sustaining European Defence

– are so important. “Both the topic and timing of this year’s conference couldn’t have been better chosen. The COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a quickly shifting geo-strategic environment is creating serious security ramifications, therefore ‘Sustaining European Defence’ has never been more pressing than today.” This year’s online conference brings together officials from EU ministries of defence, the armed forces, EU institutions, the defence industry and academia to discuss the year’s biggest achievements, most recent developments and what the future of EU security policy may look like.

This event holds particularly importance for Šedivý as it will be the first annual conference that he will chair. He explains that the event

“will not be short of discussing relevant issues, besides the pandemic and its potential impact on defence spending and planning. Attendees will also have the chance to debate the findings of the first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), and how Member States’ take up EU capability development priorities and their translation into national programmes.” Delegates will also hear from Europe’s defence industry about how it plans to adapt to a postCOVID-19 world, paying particular attention to vulnerabilities and threats to supply chains.

Chair of Parliament’s sub-committee on Security and Defence (SEDE), Nathalie Loiseau, shares Šedivý’s concern for how the pandemic is already shaping EU security and defence policy and planning. Among the consequences witnessed so far,

“The COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a quickly shi ing geo-strategic environment is creating serious security ramifications, therefore ‘Sustaining European Defence’ has never been more pressing than today”

Loiseau points to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions which have temporarily ceased, saying that Coronavirus is “putting at risk the di cult progress that had been achieved over many months.” She wants to see CSDP missions continue, even during a pandemic.

As EU forces are now involved in dealing with both health and security

issues in the countries where they are deployed, Loiseau also wants to see the two key EU defence initiatives - The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the European Defence Fund (EDF) - develop operational projects to strengthen medical responses.

Notwithstanding dealing with pandemics or chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats, the French MEP also wants greater focus placed on tackling growing digital threats including cyberattacks on critical infrastructures as well as disinformation campaigns and fake news stories seen throughout the pandemic. “We must realise that they are a weapon too, intended to weaken our democracies, and we must defend ourselves against them,” says the SEDE chair.

Loiseau’s SEDE Committee colleague, vice-chair Lukas Mandl, believes COVID-19 has exacerbated existing geopolitical crises and rivalries, saying, “Though the pandemic has highlighted the important role of our armed forces, it has also revealed our vulnerability and dependency.” He also believes a US led by Joseph Biden, who is seen as more pro-EU than his soon-tobe predecessor Donald Trump, will in fact see the country’s focus remain on the Asia-Pacific region and leave Europe to manage its own security. Therefore, he argues, “We need to be able to deal with crises on our own and increase our e orts to achieve ‘strategic autonomy’. But this will not be easy, as the pandemic was putting additional strain on Member States’ defence budgets.” For the EPP member it is also important, now more than ever, that EU taxpayers’ money was spent more e ciently and sustainably, saying “A lot of money is still wasted due to duplication and fragmentation (in European military).”

However, fellow SEDE vice-chair, Özlem Demirel, is more cynical, arguing that the current situation has been used as an excuse for the EU to expand defence spending. She tells me it is interesting to note that these plans are not new but are being reconsidered in light of global developments such as the pandemic and the world’s changing situation. She points to Brexit as another example, with the UK’s withdrawal allowing Germany and France to renew e orts to increase “military cooperation” within the EU. Demirel warns, “The citizens of Europe do not dream of war and aircraft carriers, but instead want peace and social security. Instead of billions of Euros given to the EDF, it should be invested in social measures and infrastructure.”