On Tuesday 20 May, Spain’s Defence Minister, Margarita Robles, explained that her country was opposed to the objective proposed by the United States, and echoed by NATO’s Secretary General, of spending 5% of GDP on defence within a few years.
“We are committed to achieving the target of 2% of gross domestic product, and we will do so this year. This implies a very substantial effort, amounting to €10.471 billion over and above what is in the defence budget”, she explained at the end of the EU Council of Defence Ministers. In her opinion, it is not “appropriate at this stage to talk about new percentages; the important thing is to see what capacities are needed”. Mrs Robles pointed out that some countries were “on the same wavelength” as her country and that talking about percentages without explaining the reasons for these percentages, without clearly analysing the capabilities needed and, above all, the capacity of the European defence industry to take on such a large sum of money, “could lead to imbalances”.
Earlier in the day, the German Minister, Boris Pistorius, preferred to talk about “reconstituting NATO’s requirements in terms of capabilities and means” rather than percentages.
Simplification of rules. In addition to defence and its funding, several Ministers spoke in favour of simplifying the rules within the EU. On 17 June, the European Commission is due to present an ‘omnibus’ on defence. “The steps we can take to reduce red tape and increase efficiency when we rearm, I think is most welcome. For example, when it comes to the Directive on public procurement or certain permissions”, emphasised Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson. “We would like to see the bureaucracy removed from the Regulation, it’s a huge burden”, added his Estonian counterpart, Hanno Pevkur.
Rapid deployment capability. At the end of the EU Council, High Representative of the Union Kaja Kallas announced that the rapid deployment capability - one of the flagship projects of the ‘Strategic Compass’ - was operational. “The 5,000 European soldiers who are part of the EU’s rapid deployment capability are now operational. This will enable Europe to act more quickly in the event of a crisis”, she stressed.
Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). On Tuesday, the Council of the EU adopted a decision confirming that Switzerland’s participation in the Cyber Ranges Federations PESCO project met the general conditions for the country to be invited to take part in a project (decision 2020/1639 of November 2020). The Cyber Ranges Federations project aims to develop sophisticated, high-performance platforms for e-learning. The decision authorises Estonia, as coordinator of the project, to officially invite Switzerland to join, in response to the country’s request from October 2024. Once Switzerland has concluded an administrative agreement with the project, it will officially become a member. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)