Europe Expands Defense Projects Amid Macron Warnings on NATO
Europe Expands Defense Projects Amid Macron Warnings on NATO
(Bloomberg) --
European Union governments approved a new set of defense-cooperation projects that would bolster Europe’s military clout as French President Emmanuel Macron warned that global institutions, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, needed urgent overhauls.
EU defense ministers endorsed 13 more initiatives under the Permanent Structured Cooperation -- or PESCO -- program, bringing the total to 47.
The latest projects, which were given the go-ahead on Tuesday in Brussels, range from a French-Italian goal to design a new class of military ship called “European Patrol Corvette” to a planned cyber coordination center by Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain.
The PESCO program and a planned 13 billion-euro ($14.3 billion) European Defense Fund mark the cornerstones of the EU’s efforts to do more for its own security, which has depended for decades largely on the U.S.-dominated NATO.
‘Unprecedented Crisis’
The European move comes as Macron reiterated his warning about the threats to global institutions, telling leaders at a conference in Paris that there is an “unprecedented crisis” of the international social and economic order due to inequality, unilateralism, migration, climate change and doubts about democracy. Last week, the French president warned of “brain death” at NATO.
“I’ve perhaps offended a few people here in recent days or weeks. I think we need truth: Prudishness and hypocrisy don’t work these days,” Macron said on Tuesday. “Laziness -- intellectually or in action -- is not a solution.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Macron’s comments about NATO “drastic” and said the 29-nation alliance was “irreplaceable.”
While U.S. President Donald Trump has been outspoken in pressing European countries to foot more of the transatlantic security bill, his administration has warned them against shutting American companies out of joint defense projects.
The EU has approved in principle rules for the participation of foreign businesses in the planned European Defense Fund. But the bloc’s national governments are still split over any involvement by non-EU companies in the PESCO program, with France leading a group keen to restrict access.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net;William Horobin in Paris at whorobin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Flavia Krause-Jackson
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