Regardless of the constructive alerts for the reason that begin of the 12 months, the EU’s public discourse nonetheless wants extra consistency with regards to defence, writes Niklas Nováky.
Niklas Nováky is a Senior Analysis Officer on the Wilfried Martens Centre in Brussels.
On 14 September, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her annual State of the Union handle on the European Parliament in Strasbourg, her third one since changing into Fee President in 2019.
The 2022 State of the Union handle was totally different in tone in comparison with the earlier ones that von der Leyen has delivered. It was a wartime speech through which Russia’s ongoing conflict in opposition to Ukraine took centre stage. On the very starting, von der Leyen reminded everybody that ‘(n)ever earlier than has this Parliament debated the State of our Union with conflict raging on European soil.’ The presence of Ukraine’s First Girl Olena Zelenska within the viewers was additionally extremely symbolic.
Von der Leyen delivered a powerful message of assist to Ukraine, a message of continued resistance to the Kremlin, and a message of hope and resilience to EU residents. She reminded her viewers of the solidarity and help that the EU has already supplied to Ukraine for the reason that starting of the conflict on 24 February, emphasised that the Union will proceed to face with Ukraine and its individuals, and careworn that there’s a lot at stake within the conflict, additionally for the EU itself.
Von der Leyen additionally mentioned different EU international and safety coverage subjects. She talked about inter alia that the Fee helps France’s concept of making a European Political Neighborhood to spice up the EU’s cooperation with non-EU European nations, that the Union’s World Gateway funding plan will probably be boosted, and that the Fee will current a Defence of Democracy package deal to struggle disinformation and affect operations of authoritarian nations.
One thing that the 2022 State of the Union handle didn’t embrace, nevertheless, was even a single reference to EU defence cooperation.
This was considerably peculiar given the Ukraine conflict and all the pieces the EU has finished to assist Kyiv because it started.
One may even say that it’s genuinely difficult to debate the conflict within the EU context with out additionally referencing the assorted steps the Union has taken collectively, and its member states have taken nationally, within the defence subject since February.
This was not the primary time that defence was neglected of a State of the Union handle: von der Leyen’s 2020 handle additionally didn’t embrace a single reference to EU defence cooperation. The 2021 handle, against this, did include a significant emphasis on defence. In that handle, von der Leyen mentioned the event of the European defence ecosystem and careworn the necessity for a real European Defence Union.
It’s attainable that EU defence cooperation was omitted from the 2022 State of the Union handle as a result of the EU has already stated and finished so much in that space in that space since February.
The EU has inter alia adopted a Strategic Compass to information its safety and defence coverage till 2030, accredited €2.6 billion of funding for Ukraine by the European Peace Facility to assist Kyiv purchase deadly capabilities and different gear, and launched initiatives to assist EU nations refill their depleting weapons stockpiles.
As well as, the EU is at present planning a army coaching mission to assist practice Ukraine’s armed forces.
Given all this exercise, von der Leyen and her group maybe felt that this 12 months’s State of the Union handle was not the correct second to provide one more overview of all the pieces that’s already being finished within the subject of EU defence cooperation, particularly since she had prioritised the subject additionally in her 2021 handle.
Nonetheless, it’s precisely due to this elevated exercise, along with the broader shift within the EU’s strategic tradition brought on by Russia’s conflict in opposition to Ukraine, that defence ought to have been featured additionally within the 2022 State of the Union handle, no matter what was stated in 2021.
Extra usually talking, additionally it is necessary to maintain defence cooperation excessive on the EU’s agenda and use high-visibility media moments (of which the EU doesn’t have many) comparable to State of the Union addresses to clarify the logic behind numerous (typically very technical) initiatives within the defence subject to EU residents and companion nations.
The State of the Union handle can also be the proper second to stipulate what the EU is in search of to do in that subject inside the subsequent 12 months in a way that might be comprehensible to EU residents.
In different phrases, the EU’s public discourse nonetheless wants extra consistency with regards to defence.
It’s not adequate that the sphere is mentioned intensively throughout time-restricted processes comparable to the event of the Strategic Compass however then side-lined from main agenda-setting moments such because the State of the Union handle, particularly at a time when a conflict is being fought on the EU’s personal doorstep.
This sends the mistaken message to the EU’s member states, its residents, its companions, and its adversaries.
