Europe after Putin’s War: EU Foreign and Defence Policy in the new European security architecture – Spyros Blavoukos and George Pagoulatos

 

• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a game changer for Europe and the global system and a call for the EU to emerge as a coherent security actor.
• Any EU discussion about an autonomous EU military capacity becomes irrelevant in the face of a systemic global security challenge, such as Russia, which cannot be dealt with through the existing or envisaged EU military instruments.
• Faced with a security challenge on a global scale, NATO remains the only game in town.
• The EU ambition of developing its strategic autonomy becomes practically meaningful only within the transatlantic alliance.
• EU member-states should take advantage of the existing clauses that enable significant steps to be taken towards foreign and security integration.
• The existing Treaty framework provides legal space for significant advances in the field of foreign and security integration, even though all relevant Treaty Articles contain strong ‘brakes’ which enable member-states to retain control of the process.
• Enhanced cooperation in EU foreign and security policy remains an important way forward, even though there are significant safety clauses.
• The ‘mutual defence’ or ‘mutual assistance’ clause (Article 42(7) of TEU) and the ‘solidarity clause’ (Article 222 of TFEU) are the closest things the EU has to security guarantees. Adding teeth to 42(7) should be an EU priority.
• Supporting EU ‘coalitions of the willing’ (Article 44 of TEU) also..
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