A list of the member nations' military capabilities has been compiled by the Commission. Topics of discussion include the supply of ammunition to Ukraine and historical deficiencies. And he issues this warning: "The security picture in the EU has worsened."
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Not just the tanks and naval troops, but also the air defences. Mobility and logistics hampered by impediments. The satellite network as well as the cybersecurity of the computer system both have flaws. Not to mention the unexpected expenditure of ammunition that was sent to the Ukrainian army but has not yet been replenished. The European Commission has compiled a lengthy list of problems that exist within the armed forces of the EU. A paper that has been produced for the next emergency summit, which will take place in Brussels and was published by El Pais. And with that, a troubling warning is issued: Europe is not prepared for a situation in which they go to open conflict with Russia.
According to the article published in the Spanish newspaper, "The defence of European nations has nearly as many Achilles' heels as there are troops." The list of structural and organisational problems, which the EU executive has compiled at the request of the member states themselves, "includes air defences to protect cities or key infrastructures from attacks by missiles, surveillance drones, and combat aircraft," as well as "tanks and naval forces." In addition to this deficiency in large-scale weapons, "there are added obstacles to mobility and logistics, the absence of a satellite connectivity network with European and encrypted coverage, holes in cybersecurity, and a shortage of ammunition as a result of shipments of material to aid the Ukrainian army."
Because of these factors, the European Commission, which is now controlled by Ursula von der Leyen, the former German Minister of Defense, has requested that the governments of the 27 member states urgently increase their capabilities. Because of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the security situation in the European Union "has dramatically worsened," and the number of "threats" has grown. This makes the race to build more powerful weapons an important matter. The draught text that was discussed in Brussels notes how the conflict that was started by Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine has highlighted "the harmful impacts, not just of years, but of decades of low military investment in peacetime."
According to the estimates done by the Commission, the overall expenditures made by EU nations for their respective militaries have so far been somewhere around 200 billion euros per year. If the 21 countries that make up NATO achieve their target of devoting the equivalent of 2 percent of their GDP to military spending, then the sum should rise by an additional 60 billion dollars. But any new national investments will not be enough to improve the security state of the Old Continent if there is no real coordination between the armies. This is something that has only been sketched out in the context of Pesco, which is the defence cooperation policy launched by the EU in 2015, also in response to the war in Crimea. If there is no real coordination between the armies, no amount of new national investments will be enough to improve the security state of the Old Continent.
According to the Commission, if funding is not consolidated at the national level, it runs the danger of supplying non-European armaments industry with raw materials. In regard to the United States, the paper states that "other recent budget increases" have been to the advantage of "our friends." In addition to this, "what is far worse" than "our competitors." Because of this, there has been a request to divert fresh investments towards the joint purchase of armaments, which as of the year 2020 had stalled at 11 percent of the total, when the aim that had been established by the EU was 35 percent.
The European Commission expects that with the help of this paper, they will at long last be able to attain genuine centrality in the coordination of European defence. The first possible step in this direction concerns the most urgent needs, such as replenishing the stocks of ammunition that have been partially emptied to help Ukraine: as was the case, for example, for anti-Covid vaccines, Brussels intends to act as a purchasing centre and avoid thus "a rush to orders, which would cause a spiral of prices and the impossibility for the most exposed states to find the necessary material," writes the Commission. In this way, Brussels hopes to avoid "a rush to orders, which would cause
This course of action, according to the EU executive once again, ought to become "the standard rather than the exception," especially owing to the economic savings it would involve if it were implemented. In addition, the European Union (EU) aims to incentivize localised economic development via military investment. In addition to this, he brings up the elimination of the regulation that bans the European Investment Bank from providing funding to the military industry.
Even the recently established European Defense Fund, which is endowed with 8 billion euros until 2027, "should be expanded and reformed so as to be able to finance all phases of the weapons production cycle and not only, as is the case now, up to the phase of prototype," explains El Pais. This would allow the fund to "finance all phases of the weapons production cycle and not only, as is the case now, up to the phase of prototype." However, in order to make it more effective, there would need to be a revision of the community budgets for the years 2021 through 2027. The process of resetting the multi-year budget of the EU is similar to reopening the box that contained Pandora. But it appears that Brussels is placing its bets on the notion that the conflict in Ukraine will convince nations to take a more moderate stance. Also, to set aside all forms of nationalism, not simply the military kind.