On Monday 21 March, the European Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence adopted at a joint meeting ‘A Strategic Compass for Security and Defence - For a European Union that protects its citizens, values and interests and contributes to international peace and security’.
“This is a turning point for the EU as a security provider and a very important step for the European Security and Defence Policy”, High Representative of the Union Josep Borrell said after the adoption.
While the text refers extensively to the war in Ukraine and the consequences for the EU, “this Strategic Compass sets out an ambitious but achievable plan to strengthen our security and defence policy by 2030”, the document says, covering four areas of action: crisis management, resilience, capability development and partnerships.
The Compass highlights, among other things, the creation of an EU rapid deployment capacity of 5,000 troops “into non-permissive environments, for different types of crises” by 2025, the strengthening of CSDP civilian and military missions and operations with more robust and flexible mandates - with the possibility of deploying 200 fully equipped CSDP mission experts in up to 30 days -, the strengthening of command and control structures and the strengthening of military mobility.
In addition, Member States commit themselves, inter alia, to strengthening their intelligence capabilities, creating an EU hybrid toolbox to detect and respond to a wide range of hybrid threats, including disinformation, further developing the EU’s cyber defence policy and strengthening actions in the maritime, air and space domains.
According to Mr Borrell, while Member States spend €200 billion on defence each year, or 1.5% of GDP, “we need to spend more and better, avoid duplication and gaps”. According to the text, Member States promise to spend more and better on defence and improve capability development and planning. In particular, they commit to share their national targets for increased and improved defence spending by mid-2022 “to meet security needs, to maximise output, increase interoperability and make full use of economies of scale”.
They intend to work on next generation capabilities, such as high-end naval platforms, future combat air systems, space capabilities and main battle tanks, and make full use of permanent structured cooperation and the European Defence Fund.
Finally, the EU intends to strengthen cooperation with its partners.
The Heads of State and Government will take up the ‘Strategic Compass’ at their European Council meeting on Thursday 24 March.
See the Compass: https://aeur.eu/f/ve (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)