Germany wants to promote cooperation between EU’s existing national forces
The latest German-led initiatives to create permanent autonomous structures on EU level to carry out joint military operations raised eyebrows in Washington: ‘Not another lofty plan for an ‘EU Army’ which will never be prepared to fight and steals resources from NATO!’
A second look, however, shows that the plans are reasonable and in line with the US goal to secure transatlantic unity and to shift the burden of European defense. The plan reflects Germany’s tradition to promote European cooperation while ensuring complementarity with NATO.
Not an ‘EU Army’
It is important to stress that the proposals by Germany and France (which were later joined by Spain and Italy) are not about the creation of an ‘EU Army’ and do not aim to duplicate NATO structures. They suggest permanent autonomous structures on EU level to carry out joint military operations. The goal is to promote cooperation between the existing national forces and allow them to pool their resources more effectively.
The proposed ‘EU headquarter’ is rather an enhancement of the already existing military structures of the EU. In any case it will likely be a fraction of the size of NATO’s command structure SHAPE and primarily focus on civilian-military crisis management. Instead of steering a mission out of one of the national headquarters, a permanent capability in Brussels can better coordinate with the humanitarian and development counterparts of the European Commission.
Other reasonable suggestions include a joint medical command and a logistics hub, which would for example ensure air lifting of equipment. These are concrete capabilities that Europe’s national forces are lacking and which they need in order to be able to run joint operations. To introduce them as a common investment is more cost effective. These and other capabilities will be beneficial especially in crisis interventions in Africa, a region where the US signaled to hand over responsibility to Europe in any case.
Berlin’s dual agenda on European defense
It is a paradox: the often sluggish European military power might offer an answer to the US’ calls for burden sharing. Germany shares the same interests with the US, namely to promote European cooperation while ensuring complementarity with NATO. The best way the US can ensure European defense in line with its preferences is to support the German-led initiatives.
Since the cold war ended, Berlin has pushed a dual agenda on European defense: sticking to NATO and pushing EU defense integration at the same time. The German government underlined in its defense white paper this summer that NATO is the ’indispensable guarantor of German, European and transatlantic security.’ The fact that Germany’s commitment to NATO cooperation has survived the end of the cold war and tensions with the US during the Iraq invasion, underlines the stability of the transatlantic bond. Both events might have pushed Germany to strongly focus on a more autonomous EU defense policy - an aim that France supported consistently.
Instead, Germany was always careful to develop EU defense cooperation in such a way that it is compatible with NATO interests. Germany was initially reserved when France and Britain initiated the European Security and Defense Policy in Saint-Malo in 1998. The ‘Berlin Plus’ agreements allowed the EU to draw on NATO structures to launch its first missions, but were later blocked because of hostilities between Turkey and Cyprus. Berlin supported especially the EU’s comprehensive approach to crisis-management. The approach uses tools that NATO does not offer and relies on the wider civilian, diplomatic and economic toolbox of the EU.
Germany and other European states are blamed for using the ‘soft’ civilian-military EU crisis management as an excuse for not getting serious on their own defense spending at home. The skepticism is understandable. However, Germany is moving and Chancellor Angela Merkel just recently underlined that Germany needs to increase defense spending by a ‘huge amount’ in order to meet the NATO commitment of using 2% of its GDP on defense expenditures. Making some of these investments together with European partners might ease potential worries of its neighbors of an overly dominant Germany in Europe.
Being a member of both, Germany cannot afford any duplication of EU and NATO structures. Thus, it advocates deeper cooperation between both organizations. Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel pushed the idea to use NATO capabilities to assist European efforts to counter human smuggling in the Mediterranean Sea. Efforts of Germany to foster cooperation between countries within NATO’s framework nation concept and the EU are not mutually exclusive. New European capabilities resulting from the latest initiatives can also be used within a NATO-led mission, with or without US participation.
If you can’t beat them, join them
It is more and more likely that the plans will materialize soon in one way or another. Germany, Spain, France and Italy can go ahead within the EU framework and agree on ‘permanent structured cooperation’ between their countries and other willing partners. A qualified majority of all EU member states is needed to set up this core group, making the opposition of the UK towards any deepening of defense cooperation an empty threat. The four member states are also open to set up the new cooperation outside of the EU in a separate framework. This has been done before with the passport-free travel zone ‘Schengen’.
For the US, this is a good development, as it has been pushing for greater burden sharing with European partners for a while. The transatlantic security partnership has a better chance of staying healthy when it can rest on a strong European pillar. Given its prominent role in the EU and NATO and its commitment to both organizations, Berlin is the natural partner for Washington in supporting EU defense integration in line with US goals. The US can use the current initiatives to safeguard the role of NATO and to push for sensible defense investments in Europe.