Brussels, 17/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - Following the attacks in Paris, France on Tuesday 17 November invoked a clause of the Treaties which has never before been used, regarding the aid and assistance which the member states must provide to any one of them in the event of “armed aggression on its territory”. However, it is being used more in the sense of a “political act” for purposes other than those implied by the clause.
The French President, François Hollande, made the announcement on Monday 16 November, in his speech before the two Chambers of the Parliament, meeting in Congress: at the meeting in Brussels of the defence ministers of the member states of the EU on Tuesday, the French minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was to inform his opposite numbers that France is invoking “article 42.7 of the Treaty of the Union which provides that when any State comes under attack, all member states must provide it with solidarity against this aggression as the enemy is not an enemy of France, it is an enemy of Europe”.
This has now been done and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, stressed after the discussions with the ministers that they had “unanimously expressed their deepest and fullest support and willingness to provide any aid and assistance requested and necessary” to France. At a joint press conference with Le Drian, she also stressed that “many ministers have today already announced offers of support in the form of material assistance”, whilst emphasising the exceptional nature of the situation, as it is “an article which has never before been used in the history of Union”.
Article 42.7 stipulates that “if a member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other member states shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain member states”. The article of the United Nations Charter in question has to do with exceptions to the prohibition on the use of force, in other words the right of individual or collective self-defence.
When asked why Paris had decided to invoke this article in particular, when others could have been used, such as the solidarity clause in the event of a terrorist attack (article 222 TFEU), Le Drian, supported by Mogherini, stressed that it is above all a “political act”. What the French minister hopes for now is that this act is materialised “either through capacity collaboration in the French interventions in Syria and Iraq, or by a decrease or support for France in other operations”. “We will now enter into technical discussions with our partners and take stock with each of them what can be done together and what each party can provide”, he added.
This means that what France expects of the other member states is not so much related to article 42.7 as such, but to a request for efforts, which the French government has been requesting for a long time, from the other member states as to their commitment to the common security and defence policy (CSDP). It is a kind of leverage which Paris intends to use in future bilateral consultations. Mogherini incidentally stressed that the role of the EU would be limited to “facilitating” and “coordinating” the actions to be decided upon jointly by France and the other member states.
Therefore, the selection of this article can be explained by the fact that the role and involvement of the European institutions are considerably limited in this framework compared to that of other relevant articles, as a European source confirmed to EUROPE. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)