The EU may aspire to “strategic autonomy,” but Friday’s virtual summit of heads of state and government showed leaders experiencing another concept: strategic cacophony. https://www.eudebates.tv/
While the European Council leaders issued an anodyne joint statement insisting the EU would take numerous steps “to take more responsibility for its security,” their meeting reflected a chorus of disagreement. They differed over how much priority to give security and defense issues in the EU framework. They diverged over how closely to align with NATO. And they deviated over how much independence — if any — to seek from the United States, historically the bloc’s closest ally.
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The arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden, and his promise to reinvigorate transatlantic relations, has only heightened concerns among some EU countries, especially those bordering Russia, about antagonizing Washington with talk of strategic independence. The U.S. has long bristled at any rhetoric that might be interpreted as sidelining NATO, or as advocating the development of capabilities the U.S. views as redundant.
During the summit, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki made these differences clear, according to an EU official. He argued that “the European strategic autonomy in security and defense is a challenging issue not only for Poland. The consensus on this term in security and defense has not been reached at the EU level. If misunderstood by our allies, this concept might negatively affect transatlantic relations.”
To demonstrate that Brussels intends no such distancing, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was invited for a special guest appearance at the virtual gathering, and gave a speech reiterating efforts to strengthen ties between the alliance and the EU.
Stoltenberg ticked off a list of challenges “no country or continent can face” alone — Russian aggression, international terrorism, cyberattacks, “the rise of China,” climate change.
“Not Europe alone, not North America alone, but Europe and North America together,” Stoltenberg said before the meeting in a joint appearance with Council President Charles Michel. Stoltenberg stressed that more than 90 percent of EU citizens reside in NATO-allied countries.
Michel emphasized similar points.
“We want to act more strategically to defend our interests and to promote our values, and we need to increase our ability to act autonomously and strengthen our cooperation with our partners,” he said at a news conference after the video summit. “We are committed to cooperating closer with NATO. A stronger Europe makes a stronger NATO.”
For some EU countries, keeping close with NATO and the U.S. is the highest strategic priority.
“If you are a member state, you look at NATO and not at the EU as a security provider,” said a senior EU diplomat. “If, for example, you are Greece and you have a problem with Turkey, who do you call? The EU? No doubt you don’t. You call NATO.”
