Trump
gives EU defense plans new sense of urgency
America’s
president-elect said Europe must share more of the security burden.
By DAVID M.
HERSZENHORN, MAÏA DE LA BAUME AND JACOPO BARIGAZZI 11/11/16, 5:20 AM
CET
Four European
military powers — France, Germany, Italy and Spain — will
accelerate their push for cooperation on defense because of concerns
that Donald Trump will curtail U.S. engagement, diplomats and
officials said.
A Franco-German
initiative launched in September has gained fresh impetus since
Trump’s election victory, with defense officials in Europe not
thinking — for now, at least — of a European Army, but of forging
greater strategic autonomy and forging the ability to undertake
missions that fall outside of NATO’s areas of responsibility.
“We have doubts
about the durability of U.S. involvement in Europe,” said a senior
French diplomat on Thursday. “The stakes in security are much
higher than they have ever been.”
European Commission
President Jean Claude-Juncker had already made cooperation in
security and defense a priority since taking office in 2014, and he
said on Wednesday, as Trump’s victory became known, that “it was
always obvious Americans would not always be there to protect the
European Continent.”
Next week, when
foreign and defense ministers meet in Brussels, they will discuss a
strategy proposed in June by EU foreign policy chief Federica
Mogherini to make Europe less dependent on the U.S. for its own
security.
Dubbed a “Schengen
of defense,” in reference to the passport-free travel area within
Europe, it envisages a more integrated defense industry and a legal
framework — known as permanent structured cooperation — for some
member states to push ahead faster, without waiting for all 28
countries to be on board. Mogherini said earlier this week that she
would present ministers with a “very ambitious and pragmatic”
plan.
The French diplomat
said that just a couple of years ago it would have been very
difficult to get European leaders to agree to put such ideas on the
table, “but in the context of Trump’s election, it will certainly
be reinforced.”
American
administrations had been calling on Europe to do show more commitment
to its own defense long before Trump came on the scene. Jorge Domecq,
head of the European Defense Agency, said Washington had been
demanding since at least 2015 “that we have to get our act together
and provide for our own security.”
During the U.S.
election campaign, Trump went further and raised doubts about whether
he would maintain U.S. commitments to NATO if he got elected
president, or even uphold the common defense provision enshrined in
the alliance’s treaty. He said he would seek assurances that other
NATO nations bear their share of the costs.
“He’s
going to create a new era in America, but also in Europe” —
Jose Vilar de Jesus, Portuguese defense ministry
“That means we
need to cooperate more among each other, that Europe must take care
of itself otherwise it’s impossible,” said Jose Vilar de Jesus,
head of strategic planning at the Portuguese defense ministry. He
described Trump as “an opportunity — he’s going to create a new
era in America, but also in Europe.”
Look at the French
Proponents of
greater military cooperation among EU members say it will not
undermine NATO — one of the U.K.’s concerns — and cite findings
from a report by the European Parliamentary Research Service from
2013 that it could save EU governments at least €26 billion, and
perhaps as much as €130 billion, per year. The savings, they argue,
could be used to boost Europe’s commitments to NATO, addressing
Trump’s concerns.
As an example of the
kind of missions outside of NATO’s remit that they could undertake,
proponents cite France’s military deployments in Africa and the
Middle East.
“France is doing a
job that NATO doesn’t do,” said another European diplomat. “We
have our own interests in the field of security, and NATO will never
intervene in Africa.”
A document
circulating among European defense ministers since October, signed by
France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian, Germany’s Ursula Von der Leyen,
Italy’s Roberta Pinotti and Spain’s Pedro Morenés, will be
discussed at next week’s meeting and calls for the revitalization
of European defense in a complex political situation marked by “the
uncertainties” of Brexit and the global terrorist threat, among
other factors.
“We live in a
moment when the Euro-Atlantic security is challenged in a way that
was not the case for decades,” reads the document, a copy of which
was obtained by POLITICO.
The potential
ramifications of the Trump presidency will also be a major topic of
conversation at next week’s meeting, officials said. “How we are
able to make our own decisions, and have access to technical data in
the field of defense, which won’t be in the hands of others,” the
senior French diplomat said. “It will not be about the EU’s grand
idea on an EU army, but rather to raise awareness on the fact that
security is a collective issue and that Europe can’t have it
carried out by someone else.”
Marietje Schaake, a
Dutch MEP from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and
vice-president of a delegation for relations with the U.S., said the
American election result had made it amply clear that “we don’t
have the luxury of being able to postpone this kind of cooperation.”
Authors:
David M. Herszenhorn
, Maïa de La Baume and Jacopo Barigazzi
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