In February 1998, US-led NATO intervened in Kosovo with a controversial attack that was not approved by the United Nations Security Council. In this war, almost all the objectives were set and accomplished by the United States military forces. European forces played a low-key role in this war. The involvement of European countries in this war made them realize the incapability and ineffectiveness of their own military forces in comparison to the United States’ military forces.
The European countries then realized that they lacked the capabilities of their Military forces and were dependent on the United States Military forces. Then along with the economic integration among these European nations, integration regarding the military forces and capabilities was felt essential to increase their own military capacity and lessen the dependency on the military of the US both globally and regionally.
Europe’s common security and defense policy in retrospect
In the Helsinki Summit on December 10 and 11, 1991, leaders of the European countries proceeded to form a new Common European Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). France and Britain held a summit in St. Malo on 3-4 December 1998 where they issued the “Joint Declaration of European Defense” where the headline goal was built aimed at increasing the military capabilities and forming one united European military force.
Then, in 1999 military targets for 2003 were set with the aim of developing the European Rapid Reaction Force. On December 12, 2003, the European Security Strategy was drawn which clarified the threats faced by the European Union and the strategies to secure the union from those threats. This can be considered an important development in the history of Europe’s defense policy as Europe, to overcome these threats, realized that they had to have strong military capabilities along with economic, financial, and political diplomacy to be able to deter threats during crises independently.
Thus, Operation “Artemis” in 2003, became the first autonomous EU-led, UN-authorized operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This mission, outside Europe, applied the principle of the framework nation and was an important event in the development of the European Security and Defense Policy. The military performed the task to calm the conflict zone and the security of the refugees in Bunia.
Subsequently, as a reform treaty, the treaty of Lisbon was signed on December 13, 2007 by the EU amending the treaties which provided the constitutional basis of the European Union. This treaty explained the change of name to Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) from European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) aiming to enable the member countries to develop peace and maintain security by relying on their own military capabilities. The member countries were able to make commitments regarding developing their military capabilities and fulfilling their commitments. They were even allowed to withdraw if they lack to fulfill the commitment they have made.
PESCO
Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) became the intergovernmental organization of the European countries to cooperate and collaborate in the areas of investment, capabilities building, and operation readiness regarding its defense and security. It became a comprehensive defense package that was enabled by the treaty of Lisbon in 2009 and initiated in 2017 by 25 member countries of the European Union.
As we can see from these developments, Europe did not come up with this idea of a common defense policy all of a sudden. Each step was taken prudently considering the interest of countries like the United States and others that might be affected.
How the EU cooperated with NATO regarding CSDP?
The Berlin Plus Agreement, signed on December 16, 2002, can be taken as one of the pillars of the cooperation between NATO and the EU as this agreement allowed the EU to use NATO’s military assets and mechanisms in its own independent operations. As such, this developed as a vital agreement for both the Union and NATO further enhancing their interdependence.
Defense packages like PESCO aided the European countries to develop their military capabilities but it didn’t allow them to be deployed as collective EU assets in the conflicted areas. Supranational mechanisms like NATO were required for the deployment of these capabilities. As such, unless the EU comes up with a similar mechanism to replace it, it still must depend upon these organizations. Therefore, in the EU’s own independent operations, having NATO’s military capabilities and structure turned out to be vital.
The enhancement of military capabilities among military forces through this cooperation was the main idea of the PESCO. This was essential to preserve and increase the Union’s autonomy to perform independently by making the European countries’ military capable and harmonized, independent from the United States.
Similarly, PESCO could have been a suitable defense mechanism for Europe to initiate the environment for separate European military forces to have operations and dialogues instead of limiting the relationship using NATO dealing with countries like Russia in the cases like Ukraine.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and EU’s strategic compass
As a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in March 2022, the council approved the Strategic Compass which aims at providing the Union with an ambitious plan of action for strengthening the EU’s security and defense policy by 2030. The collective ambition of this compass is to make the EU the security provider contributing to international peace and security by cooperating with strategic partners like NATO, the UN, and other regional partners, like OSCE, AU, and ASEAN. According to Executive Vice-President Josep Borrell, the compass consists of 80 action plans laid down as an advent for implementing common EU defense and achieving strategic sovereignty in the current geopolitical redefinition.
As European countries have clearly stated that the Russian aggression over Ukraine is an attack on Europe and the democratic values it adheres to, these countries are more united to deter the Russian military from Ukrainian territory. The invasion of Ukraine has largely contributed to these countries’ initiatives for collective resilience in addition to diversifying its energy supplies and adopting the latest sanctions packages against Russia as a Union.
With the initiation of this compass, the Russian aggression in Ukraine seems to further solidify the cooperation between the EU and NATO demonstrating political unity and complementarity efforts. Consequently, countries like Finland and Sweden’s application to join NATO and Dennis’s referendum on abolishing its defense opt-out held in June 2022 can be seen as these individual countries’ willingness to strengthen and contribute to the region’s security and the Union’s commitment to mitigate security threats and restore international order.
(Gaurav Dahal is a research associate at Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement.)
