On Thursday 6 June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the EU could not defend Europe.
At a discussion organised by the Atlantic Council in Finland, Mr Stoltenberg, while welcoming the EU’s defence efforts, “as long as they consist of increasing defence spending”, explained that “the EU cannot defend Europe”. “We should have absolutely no confusion about the fact that NATO has to be and is the bedrock, a kind of defining framework for the defence of Europe”, he said.
In his view, “any attempt to weaken the transatlantic bond will not only weaken NATO, it will divide Europe”. Mr Stoltenberg warned that the EU’s defence efforts should complement and support the Alliance and not duplicate or weaken the idea of NATO as the defining framework for the defence of Europe.
Moreover, the Alliance has “unique responsibilities” that should not be called into question, explained Mr Stoltenberg, citing the command structure. “If the EU starts to build a parallel command structure, even if it is small to begin with, then actually we’re weakening NATO’s command structure”, he warned, also highlighting defence planning. Mr Stoltenberg also reiterated the need for a single set of standards - those of NATO.
He pointed out that “80% of NATO’s defence expenditure comes from non-EU Allies“. What’s more, “if you look at the map, you realise that the defence of Europe is more than EU countries”.
The Secretary General stressed the need for NATO and the EU to work closely together. “We should do more of that because we complement each other, we face many of the same challenges and we have the same neighbourhood”, he added. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)