Borrell: The EU must change its defense paradigm and start defending itself

Josep Borrell, photo: Getty Images

High Representative of the European Union for foreign policy and security policy, Josep Borrell, in his blog on the occasion of the release of his book “Europe between two wars”, noted that the EU needs a paradigm shift in European defense.

Source: “European truth”

Details: According to him, the EU delegated its security to the USA for too long, and in the last 30 years, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe allowed itself to “quietly disarm”.

Advertising:

He noted that the EU was built around the internal market and the economy, but, in his opinion, the European Union cannot continue to follow this path.

“We must assume strategic responsibility and become capable of defending Europe on our own, building a strong European support within NATO,” Borrell stressed.

The top diplomat added that the EU must make this leap forward in a very short period of time.

“Not because we intend to fight. On the contrary: we want to prevent war by having the means to reliably deter any aggressor. This does not mean the creation of a European army. Defense is and will remain for the foreseeable future the exclusive competence of our member states,” – he remarked.

Borrell explained that it is primarily about increasing spending at the national level, where the indicator of defense spending should rise to more than 2% of GDP.

Direct speech: “But more importantly, it’s about joint spending to fill gaps, avoid duplication and improve interoperability. Currently, only 18% of equipment purchases by our armies are joint.”

More details: Borrell called one of the main lessons of Russia’s war against Ukraine that technological advantage is a key factor, especially in the fight against an enemy for whom life is cheap, therefore, he believes, the EU needs to have its own defense industry that would meet its needs.

Direct speech: “The most promising ways to achieve this goal are: firstly, changing the credit policy of the European Investment Bank so that it can invest in the defense sector, and secondly, issuing joint debt obligations, as we have successfully done, to counter of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these discussions between member states are at an early stage, and it is very important that everyone joins them,” the official urged.

Prehistory:

• Earlier, Borrell said that he is waiting for “bold decisions” for Ukraine from the joint meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs and defense of the EU country, which will take place on April 22.
• Before that, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that he wants to push through the idea of ​​increasing NATO member states’ defense spending from 2% to 3% of GDP.
• It will be recalled that during the 10 years of the Russian war against Ukraine, six times more NATO member states managed to spend more than 2% of GDP on defense.