Security and Defence NEWS +++

European Parliament 2022 Annual Report on the CSDP

On 18 January, the European Parliament adopted in a plenary session the 2022 Annual Report on the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The report, drafted by MEP Tom Vandenkendelaere (EPP, Belgium) for the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET), focuses in part on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the EU’s response, the implementation of the Strategic Compass, the EU defence initiatives and the parliamentary scrutiny of the CSDP.

Ukraine: MEPs stress the dramatic deterioration of the security situation in Europe resulting from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. They call on the European Union (EU) to step up and accelerate its efforts to provide Ukraine with the necessary financial, humanitarian and military aid and equipment, including heavy weaponry.

EU initiatives: The report welcomes the new EU initiatives aimed at enhancing cooperation on security and defence such as the Versailles declaration, the Strategic Compass, the defence investment gap analysis, and the proposal on EDIRPA (European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act). As regards the Strategic Compass, the report considers it a “major impetus that could generate the necessary momentum towards a genuine European Defence Union”. It calls for the Rapid Deployment Capacity, a modular force of up to 5,000 personnel, to be implemented “as soon as possible and by 2025 at the latest”.

CSDP missions: The report underlines that CSDP missions and operations need to be more closely aligned with the needs of the host countries, and calls for more “robust and flexible mandates” for them, as well as adequate resources, staffing, funding, training and equipment.

Parliamentary scrutiny: Finally, the report calls for increased parliamentary scrutiny of the CSDP and the creation of a fully fledged Council formation for defence.

Swedish Presidency Reinforcing EU defence partnerships

A more secure Europe, with the EU as a stronger security and defence actor is one of the Swedish EU Presidency priorities. The Presidency conference on “Reinforcing EU Defence Partnerships”, held from 30 to 31 January at Uppsala Castle in Sweden, focused on the EU’s cooperation with strategic partners. The event gathered some hundred participants, among them EU defence policy directors, representatives from various EU institutions as well as a number of the EU’s strategic partners such as representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, NATO, Norway, Canada and Iceland. A report on regional defence cooperation and EU cooperation with strategic partners was presented by the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS).

In his opening speech, Swedish Minister for Defence Pål Jonson underlined the responsibility of the EU Presidency in the times of the ongoing Ukraine war. He said: “A heavy responsibility rests on the Swedish Presidency at this crucial time in our Union’s history. That is why the priorities of the Swedish Presidency focus on meeting the challenges we face in this difficult security situation. Sweden has three

“Last year was an extraordinary year in terms of Security and Defence Policy. (…) A year of realising that we must do much more for our security.”

Web https://bit.ly/3HUGUWX

Video https://bit.ly/3YK0A6H main priorities in the area of security and defence: support to Ukraine, the implementation of the EU’s Strategic Compass and strategic partnerships.”

At a number of panel discussions focussed on regional and multilateral cooperation, representatives from the European Intervention Initiative (EI2), the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) and the Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO) gave their perspectives. Another panel discussion focused on the question of how cooperation between bilateral strategic partners and the EU can be developed.

The conference’s final panel discussion was dedicated to the role of the Union and NATO in European security, in light of the Joint Declaration on EU-NATO cooperation signed on 10 January. The panel participants discussed how the implementation of the EU’s Strategic Compass and NATO’s new strategic concept can generate more new areas of cooperation.