“Historical development”: USA wants to participate actively in EU defense policy

Dhe USA wants to take an active part in building the European Defense Union in the future. Accordingly, Washington will participate in the EU defense initiative “Permanent Structured Cooperation (Peach) “Take part in a multi-billion dollar project to improve cross-border troop and material transport in Europe.

According to information from WELT AM SONNTAG, a corresponding written request from the Pentagon was received by the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands last Thursday. The Hague coordinates the project, in which – with the exception of Denmark, Malta and Ireland – a total of 24 EU countries are participating. EU diplomats said: “This is a historic development with far-reaching political implications. In addition, the Americans are also allowed to contribute financially to the expansion of infrastructure in Europe. “

Since November 2020, third countries can also participate in Pesco. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) described this at the time as a “breakthrough”, which also meant an “impulse” for cooperation between the EU and NATO. In addition to the USA, Canada and Norway have also applied in the past few days to participate in the project to improve military mobility in Europe. The EU governments want to soon decide on the applications in a multi-stage admission process.

The improvement of military mobility in Europe is one of a total of 46 Pesco projects. The first have been running since March 2018. The goal of Pesco is to significantly improve the EU’s ability to act in security and defense policy and to close so-called capability gaps in order to finally be able to play a role on the global stage. Germany and France played a key role in initiating the initiative in 2017.

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The key to a more efficient EU defense policy should be close cooperation between its members. Above all, the Europeans want to prevent duplication, fragmentation and costly competition in the European arms industry. At the same time, one wants to make the military equipment and the armed forces more compatible.

Almost every member country coordinates a specific Pesco project, in which a different number of countries can participate. Germany even coordinates six projects. This includes the establishment of a European medical command, an initiative to improve the crisis reaction capacity of the EU countries and the installation of a Europe-wide network of so-called logistics hubs in order to be able to move troops and materials quickly.

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The Netherlands, in turn, are coordinating the project to improve military mobility, in which the USA, Canada and Norway now want to participate. In the opinion of the EU and NATO, the project is one of the most important measures of all in European defense policy. Should it actually succeed in the coming years to reduce the transport of troops and material within Europe by investing billions in bridges, roads and rail traffic and by reducing the intergovernmental bureaucracy when issuing drive-through permits, this would increase the operational readiness and defense capability of the West significantly improve.

In the event of a violent conflict – for example, the invasion of Latvia by Russian armed forces – the main aim is to get western troops to the scene as quickly as possible. However, this can only succeed if bridges, rails and roads can withstand the transport of heavy weapons, such as tanks, and transports to the east are not unnecessarily delayed by complex border controls in the individual European countries. In the end, the US troops would also benefit from faster troop and material transports. In the event of war, they would head for German or Italian ports, for example, in order to then travel east through Europe as quickly as possible.

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The Pesco project to improve military mobility ultimately benefits not only the EU, but also NATO, which in an emergency would definitely be the first organization to take on the defense of allies. The participation of the USA in EU defense policy interlinks the cooperation between the EU and NATO even more closely than before and could be a huge boost for the transatlantic partnership. At the same time, however, it is also a damper for the ambitions of French President Emmanuel Macron, who – if possible under the leadership of France – is striving for “strategic autonomy” for Europe in military matters.

Only on Friday the EU heads of state and government confirmed at a video summit that the Union wanted to cooperate “closely with NATO” in the future. The Summit Declaration says literally: “We look forward to working with the new US administration on a strong and ambitious transatlantic agenda that includes a close dialogue on security and defense.” This global cooperation “will be enhanced by a stronger one.” EU benefit in the area of ​​security and defense ”, emphasize the EU states. Against this background, the application from Washington comes at exactly the right time.

This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG. We will be happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.

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