EU Sees Military Intervention Force by 2025 in Draft Proposal
EU Sees Military Intervention Force by 2025 in Draft Proposal
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union is set to discuss a blueprint to create a military joint intervention force by 2025 and ensure it can be deployed without a unanimous decision by all member states, according to a draft document seen by Bloomberg.
The proposed roadmap setting out the so-called Strategic Compass, which focuses on global security and defense priorities, will be formally submitted to a meeting of foreign ministers on Nov. 15 by the bloc’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell.
The bloc would commit to establishing an EU Intervention Force of about 5,000 troops by 2025 to respond to “the full range of military crisis-management tasks, for example a rescue and evacuation mission or a stabilization operation in a hostile environment,” according to the 19-page draft.
Member states have been struggling to affirm their common security and defense capabilities, an objective made more pressing by the chaotic U.S.-led withdrawal from Afghanistan, and a new U.S.-led defense pact with Australia that saw France lose a massive submarine contract.
Leaders are due to discuss the blueprint in December, and endorse a final version in March during France’s presidency of the EU. French President Emmanuel Macron has made developing the bloc’s strategic autonomy in defense a priority. The draft could still be amended before it’s submitted to foreign ministers.
The European Commission declined to comment on the draft proposal.
The issue of bolstering an EU military capability has divided the bloc in the past, with previous efforts to create a sizable force going nowhere. The latest push is meeting similar opposition from some member nations, particularly in the east, wary of any move that could conflict with NATO’s remit, and therefore weaken transatlantic ties.
EU ambassadors have in recent weeks expressed different views on the scope of the strategy, according to diplomatic notes seen by Bloomberg. Some countries back a new EU intervention force while others have warned against duplicating existing programs.
The proposed intervention force would be based on smaller 1,500-person battle groups the EU created in 2007 but has never deployed. Countries would provide assets such as strategic transport, force protection and intelligence. Command and control would be entrusted to national operational headquarters, or to an EU arm.
“While NATO is and will remain the foundation of collective defense for its members, our strategic competitors should not question the EU’s common resolve to respond to aggression and malicious activities against any of our Member States,” the document says. It also vows to hold more frequent joint EU-NATO strategic talks, and describes the partnership with the U.S. as “essential.”
Short of Unanimity
Amid concerns that the EU’s requirement for unanimity could block any rapid intervention, the draft proposes greater flexibility, including the use of constructive abstention “to enable willing and capable European-led coalitions” to go ahead.
Wide-ranging commitments in the document include enhancing resilience to tackle hybrid threats, “foreign information manipulation and interference,” and cyber deterrence. By the end of 2023, the EU would adopt a strategy to address risks in the space domain and threats to the bloc’s space program.
With China a priority concern for EU nations, the drafts lists the Asian giant among Indo-Pacific countries with which the EU has “constructive security and defense consultations” alongside Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
“We will continue to pursue dialog and consultations with China, especially to ensure respect for the law of the sea and a rules-based international order,” the draft says. “Despite China’s growing assertiveness, we will continue to cooperate in areas of mutual interest such as countering piracy and climate and security.”
The strategy, if endorsed by national governments, would see the bloc expand maritime presences in areas of interest, starting with the Indo-Pacific.
Threat Assessments
The proposal also would call on national intelligence agencies to review the EU’s Threat Analysis by 2025 and keep updating it at least every 5 years.
Another proposed pledge would have the block to commit by 2023 to assess defense industrial dependencies and use the EU’s foreign and direct investment screening mechanism “to preserve intellectual property, supply chains and industrial production and testing capacities in the EU defense sector,” the draft says.
The document says that defense budgets should grow in real terms in the coming years, but doesn’t feature concrete commitments. It says countries should be prepared to boost the European Defense Fund after 2027.
The strategy also aims to reduce gaps in the EU’s capabilities and proposes to increase collaborative defense projects in the EU’s next budget cycle.
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