European Union leaders like to present themselves as the last bastion of the liberal international order in an era of populists and authoritarians.
In turn, French President Emmanuel Macron has pushed for greater and more formalized defense cooperation among the bloc’s 27 member states. But, as is the increasing norm for Macron, the rhetoric does not match up with reality.
As the Financial Times reported on Monday, EU budget negotiators have abandoned big plans to invest in the EU military project. The cuts include stripping “almost [$1.08 billion] from the original budget proposal for outer space, [$3.8 billion] from a facility for military and peacekeeping activities, and [$1.63 billion] from measures to help ease the movement of armed forces around Europe during security crises.”
The Financial Times rightly points out that the movement capacity cuts are especially surprising. That’s because European NATO powers currently retain pathetic force mobility, and, in the event of a Russian blitzkrieg invasion of the Baltic states or Poland, the EU gaps mean NATO would struggle to get forces into battle in a timely or sufficient fashion. Considering Russia’s most likely invasion strategy, which is to establish air defense strongholds and then sue for a favorable peace, that’s a rather significant problem.
So, while I’ve always opposed the establishment of a separate EU defense architecture outside of NATO — it wastes money that could be spent on new capabilities inside NATO — these cuts are deeply problematic.
And at a political level as well as a purely military one.
Alongside the space capability cuts, the EU is showing that it remains utterly unserious about doing what is necessary to deter and defeat external aggression. Rhetoric is cheap, but especially so when it comes from EU leaders such as EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. After all, those leaders presided over Belgium and Germany’s military implosions as their nation’s respective former prime minister and defense minister.
In the end, this budget proves a familiar truth: Too many Europeans are happy to blame America for China’s and Russia’s increasingly aggressive confidence, suck up to China and Russia in the next moment, and then expect the United States to subsidize their defense against those two nations in the next.
As I say, it’s a joke.
