The Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR), Sir James Rupert Everard, warned on Tuesday 19 February that the EU is short on military resources.
“The EU lacks muscle”, he stressed at a hearing in the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Defence. He called for the promotion and protection of the ‘Berlin Plus’ mechanism. This mechanism, signed in 2002, provides the EU with access to NATO's planning capabilities and capability recovery. “It works very well”, according to Sir James Everard.
While the European model for defence and security has long worried NATO and some allies, according to the senior officer, they now understand this model “much better”. “There is a much clearer understanding that there is no contradiction between investing in the autonomous strategy of the EU and cooperation with NATO, the African Union or the United Nations, that pooling forces can make it possible to complement each other without becoming competitors and that cooperative autonomy can be developed”, the Deputy Supreme Commander explained.
According to Sir James Everard, cooperation between the EU and NATO has so far been largely implemented at the political level. He considered that work at the political level would provide a “very solid basis for developing a functional and pragmatic partnership”. “Cooperation is not only desirable, but essential. It would be a serious mistake if we did not move to deepen this relationship”, he said, adding that the theory of cooperation must pass the test of operational and tactical cooperation. The Deputy Supreme Commander highlighted military mobility in particular.
In addition, Sir James Everard asserted that NATO must confront “a serious competitor - Russia - and a cancer - terrorism”. When asked about pressure from US President Donald Trump for Allies to spend more on defence, the Deputy Supreme Commander said that this pressure had had the desired effect, and that the Allies were making more efforts for defence. “American support [for the Alliance] is almost flawless in terms of money and equipment, so there aren’t really any concerns about American commitments”, he added, although Mr Trump has threatened on several occasions to leave the Alliance. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)