The defense of Europe

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell delivers a speech on the situation in Afghanistan during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Sept. 14. POOL / Reuters

Europe has become aware of the need for a strategic change in relation to its defense.

Far from being a merely theoretical question, it is becoming an emergency.

The reconfiguration unleashed by the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent emergence of China as a global superpower has been joined by the change in direction of the United States when it comes to establishing its priority area of ​​interests - which has moved from the North Atlantic to the Pacific-.

Europe has suffered a progressive loss of relevance and an increase in threats to its security.

More information

• Ursula von der Leyen: "We need the European Defense Union"

The High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, declared some time ago that Europe needs to "learn to handle the language of power." The State of the Union speech that Ursula von der Leyen delivered to the European Parliament on 15 September seems to fit this logic by announcing a European Defense Summit to be held under the French presidency of the Union (January to June 2022 ). The political impulse that corresponds to the European Commission is firm in the words of its president, and it becomes credible by linking its development to the agenda of the French presidency. France is the only nuclear power in the Union. I could do nothing without her in terms of defense,although it will require the support of a hard core of States that curb the resistance of the less enthusiastic.

Autonomy is the real heart of the matter so that the different existing mechanisms work with a strategic direction that makes them truly effective. But for this they need the unequivocal political commitment of the Member States, and it will not be easy. Josep Borrell stressed that any actor who wants to call himself geopolitical needs military capacity, even if it is because of its dissuasive nature. The EU neither has it nor, as of today, is expected to have it. The reflection of the high representative is correct

If the European Union aspires to be more influential in the world, and wants to do so according to its principles and values, it needs to gain autonomy both in the field of defense and in the field of technology (today its dependence on semiconductors is evident ). In short, the departure of the United Kingdom from the Union, the will of the United States to concentrate on other areas of the planet, the growing leadership of aggressive powers or the failure of Afghanistan, with the consequences that may derive from it for Europe and for the world, show that perhaps the time has come for Europe to move forward with firm flexibility towards that old aspiration that constitutes having its own structures for a common defense. But it is also the occasion to find out what defense consists of in the 21st century,without mimicking structures of the past.