Politico: Who’s the boss when it comes to defense: NATO or the EU? – Analysis

Author: Newsroom  | Published: April 22, 2024

Both NATO and the EU want to spend a €100 billion on defense — and that’s leading to clashes between the two Brussels-based institutions

Related Stories

The European Union is donning its camouflage pants and flexing its muscles on defense. NATO isn’t happy.

For years, the two Brussels-based institutions have barely communicated when it comes to defense, except for some military cooperation in areas like the Balkans — because they haven’t had to. Defense was NATO’s turf (it is a military alliance, after all), while the EU dealt with trade, farming, climate change and things like standards for heritage cheeses.

It was summed up by a catchphrase popular in military circles: “The U.S. fights, the U.N feeds, the EU funds.”

That’s now changing.

Calls are increasing for the next European Commission — to be formed after the EU election in June and likely again led by Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defense minister — to have its first-ever defense commissioner. The person in the post would be responsible for allocating billions of euros to Europe’s defense industry to help with the bloc’s own needs, as well as those of Ukraine.

The Commission has also presented a European Defence Industrial Strategy alongside a cash pot of at least €1.5 billion, aimed at getting the EU to finally begin punching its weight when it comes to defense.

EU leaders are trying to find money to boost EU defense and told the Commission to “explore all options” by their June summit. Diplomats say leaders agree on the need for the money but disagree on how to find it.

See Also:

The first non-state Universities will be in Ellinikon

Spurred by the war in Ukraine and by the potential return to the White House of Donald Trump, the bloc wants its members to start thinking of their own futures when it comes to defense, one in which they don’t rely overly on the United States.

At NATO, where the U.S. is the keystone member and which has enjoyed decades of supremacy over how most EU countries coordinate defense policies, alarm bells are ringing.

“You cannot have [the] EU and NATO presenting to Germany, or to Denmark, or to Poland, two conflicting lists of capability targets,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters last month.

Those are strong words from the usually ultra-diplomatic Stoltenberg.

“What is important is that of course NATO is the organization that has to set the capability targets … for how many battle tanks, how many planes, how many ships, what kind of readiness and so on,” he added.

Continue here: Politico

Tags With: