Stoltenberg, von der Leyen, Michel, the top three officials of NATO and the EU institutions, signed their third cooperation agreement in more than six years on Tuesday. Their main message at NATO headquarters: unity and more cooperation. That seemed mainly aimed at Moscow.
NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg recalled that the trio – Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU President Charles Michel and himself – last met at NATO headquarters in Brussels on February 24, 2022. That was the day Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started. “President Putin wanted to take Ukraine in a few days. And he wanted to divide us. He has clearly failed on both fronts.”
Stoltenberg underlined this by suggesting that Finland and Sweden are de facto very close to joining. Their joining NATO is progressing at lightning speed by historical standards. And while Hungary and Turkey have not yet ratified that accession, he said, it is “unthinkable that Finland and Sweden will face a military threat without NATO responding.”
Stoltenberg further argued that Russia’s war against Ukraine and its desire to control its neighbors heighten the need to strengthen the “critical transatlantic bond in NATO, as well as cooperation between NATO and the EU”. He said that with the accession of Finland and Sweden, NATO will “protect 96 percent of EU citizens”.
EU President Michel stressed that “close allies make close alliances” and that the EU has already made a major contribution to supporting Ukraine. The contributions from the EU and the Member States together amount to more than EUR 50 billion. Michel used a phrase that normally belongs to Stoltenberg’s regular report: “Putin wanted less NATO, instead he is getting more.”
Symbolism
Anna van Zoest, who worked as a diplomat at both organizations and is now director of the Netherlands Atlantic Association in The Hague, speaks of “an important symbolic gesture”, whereby it is also striking that the two EU leaders went to NATO headquarters to deliver this message, not the other way around. “It was about time,” she adds, “because the previous declaration on cooperation was already four years old”. The fact that practical cooperation between the EU and NATO is more difficult in practice than on paper has been mainly due to the tensions between Turkey and Greece for years.
It is striking how the Russian war against Ukraine brings clarity to issues that until recently were hotly debated in sectarian debates about European security and the division of roles between the EU and NATO. NATO remained the predominant military alliance because of the widening gap between US and European military capabilities.
But in a rhetorical sense, under President Trump, the EU chose to flee forward, led by President Macron’s ambition to work towards “European strategic autonomy”.
Several developments – the arrival of Trump, Brexit, China’s more aggressive diplomacy under Xi – boosted Macron’s ambition in Brussels as well. But it also led to subcutaneous tensions, including among Americans who felt that Europeans were carried away by their own rhetoric – “but if sacrifices have to be made for freedom, we are welcome again”.
Electroshock
In the meantime, the war has demonstrated the indispensability of the US as the greatest European military power – while, on the other hand, few dispute that Europe itself must do more. So old formulations about NATO and EU that “complement” each other have been dusted off, and Macron has saved his intellectual honor with a kind of Frankenstein theory. The “brain dead” Nato has been brought back to life because the Russian invasion of Ukraine produced an “electroshock” that reawakened the alliance.
But the war also shows the value of the work the EU has done in recent years to organize its own toolbox – not so much for large independent operations, but for a better coordinated defense policy. According to Van Zoest, there is now a “clear division of roles with regard to Ukraine”, with the alliance primarily responsible for the defense of NATO territory “while the EU takes on other crucial elements of support to Ukraine, such as training of Ukrainian soldiers, arms supplies, and budget support”. Incidentally, the main coordination of arms support is done in the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
In addition, the agenda of strategic autonomy is by no means off the table, Von der Leyen assured on Tuesday. She cited as an illustration the increased cooperation on the production of corona vaccines, the reduction of dependence on Russian fossil fuels, and the European laws to promote independence in semiconductors and raw materials. “Renewable energy is also independence,” she said.