Work to operationalize the European Union's mutual defense clause should focus on circumstances that fall "below the threshold" of NATO's Article 5, the bloc's top military official told Euronews.
General Seán Clancy, Chairman of the EU Military Committee, told Euronews over the weekend that his services "stand ready" to help redefine what mutual European defence means, the Telegraph reports.
On Saturday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her speech at the Munich Security Conference to call for the EU to become independent in its defense, adding that the time had come for the bloc to "liven up" its mutual defense clause as part of this effort.
She added that the commitment set out in the clause, known as Article 42.7 of the Treaties, "only has weight if it is built on trust and ability".
Von der Leyen's comments come at a time when the EU is in the midst of a defense review triggered by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with warnings that Moscow could attack another European country before the end of the decade.
But there are also concerns, despite European leaders and ministers publicly stating the opposite, about the continued US commitment to European security, NATO, and the collective defense clause of Article 5.
Both NATO's Article 5 and the EU's Article 42.7 have only been invoked once: the former by the US after the September 11 attacks, the latter by France after the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.
The EU clause states that "if an EU country is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, other EU countries have the obligation to assist and support it by all means in their power."
Asked why the EU should further operationalize its mutual defense clause if the 23 member states that are also in the military alliance are convinced of Washington's long-term commitment to their security, General Clancy said that the roles of the two organizations are very clearly defined.
"NATO is a military alliance first and foremost, the EU is not. The EU is something completely different. And that, I think, is how we would operationalize this, if I could put it simply, under Article 5," he told Euronews.
"So, in other circumstances, in terms of hybrid warfare, in terms of other types of crises, I think, whether they are humanitarian, whether they are crises of a more serious nature, whether they are responses to hybrid threats. What is the EU response and how do we operationalize this? I think this is the kind of complementarity, and the focus is complementarity, so that the EU-NATO understanding and relationship is strengthened," he added.
One of the key points of the EU's efforts to increase its readiness by 2030 is a program by the EU Commission to promote joint defense procurement in order to fill capability gaps in a faster and cheaper way.
Member states, for example, were offered the opportunity to benefit from a €150 billion loan issued by the Commission, with the aim of jointly acquiring capabilities across nine identified priority areas, including munitions, drones, air defence, ground combat and strategic enablers.
General Clancy told Euronews that EU authorities are now "in an implementation phase" and that "all nine capability areas are being worked on".
However, he acknowledged that some sectors are advancing faster than others, largely because their industrial bases are more mature, or because lessons from the battlefield in Ukraine have accelerated development. This is particularly true for drones, as well as space assets.
The next important point will be a formal readiness report to be delivered in the autumn, which aims to provide political leaders - including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen - with greater clarity on where gaps persist and how quickly they can be closed.
Asked whether the EU would be ready to defend itself by the end of the decade, as is the aim under the Commission's Defence Readiness 2030 plan, General Clancy struck a cautious tone, arguing that this standard should be seen as part of a long-term change and not as a set end state.
"The last four years have taught us that the world is not the same," he said, pointing to the war in Ukraine as a grim illustration of how conflict is evolving as it combines elements of conventional warfare - such as trenches - along with devices driven by destructive technology.
This makes it impossible, he said, to truly predict what a future war in Europe might look like.
What is clear, he argued, is that preparedness in Europe must mean preparing for scenarios ranging from "peace, semi-peace, through crisis and perhaps into state conflict."
"2030 is a target, if you will, and we are accelerating towards that, but it will be a continuum," General Clancy said.
He suggested that Europe will not be able to "stand by" and lower the level of defense and security after that date, and will need to support current efforts. /Telegraph/
