Autonomous regime: why the EU started talking about its own strategic course

The European Union intends to follow its strategic course and build up its "capacity for autonomous action."

This is stated in a statement issued on December 7 by the EU Council on relations between the European Union and the United States.

“By following its own strategic course and building the capacity for autonomous action, a stronger European Union will be able to actively contribute to strengthening the transatlantic partnership and fulfilling the tasks set within this format,” the document says.

It is also reported that "the transatlantic agenda must be updated in order to jointly find answers to global challenges."

At the same time, Brussels confirmed "the strategic importance of the partnership between the European Union and the United States of America as the most important and closest in the world."

“We need to work with the United States to strengthen our strategic resilience and energy security, counter hybrid threats (including disinformation), successfully counter economic coercion and attacks on critical infrastructure, step up efforts to combat unfair trade practices, and maintain technological advantage, "the message says.

The EU Council also welcomed the intention of the Democrat Joe Biden, who was named in Brussels as the "President-elect" of the United States, to "return the United States as soon as possible to the circle of participants in the Paris Agreement on combating climate change."

In addition, the European Union hopes to work with the United States to step up defense and security efforts, including by expanding EU-NATO cooperation in areas of common interest, to work to strengthen non-proliferation and arms control, and a nuclear deal with Iran.

The EU plans to resume joint efforts with the United States to reform the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization.

Brussels also said that the European Union and the United States should strive for a more effective and coordinated use of restrictions and to address the issue of extraterritorial action.

• EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell

• © John Thys / Pool via REUTERS

Earlier, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, upon his arrival in Brussels for a meeting of the EU Council, called the issue of strategic autonomy "controversial".

“During our working lunch we will discuss the controversial issue of strategic autonomy and what it implies.

This will take us quite a lot of time, because it is necessary to clarify the meaning of this concept, as well as the way to promote what we really need, ”he said.

Borrell also noted that he will present the initiative of the European Commission and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to restart interaction with the United States for consideration by the foreign ministers of the EU countries.

We will remind, on December 2, the European Commission announced that the EU has developed a strategy for restarting relations with the United States, which will be implemented if Biden becomes President of the United States.

Opposing positions

In mid-November, Josep Borrell, in an interview with leading European media, said that under the Biden administration, the EU and the US "will be friends, allies and partners."

However, he added that the level of relations between the parties is unlikely to return to that which was before the coming to power of the current head of the White House, Donald Trump.

“I think we will have a structured relationship.

But we must be realistic: over the years, great changes have taken place in the basis of American society, which will remain after Trump, ”Borrell is quoted by El Pais.

The EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also noted that the EU's role "will have to be completely different" from that played by the union after World War II, "in order to aim at strategic autonomy."

According to Borrell, Europe should be able to defend its interests and values ​​itself, if necessary.

“Strategic autonomy is not extraordinary.

This is just the adult life of the EU, which has long slept under the protective umbrella of the United States.

But it would be a mistake to believe that this autonomy has only a military dimension.

Europe must be able to defend its interests and values.

Together with your allies whenever possible.

But when this is not possible, then on your own, ”he said.

The European official added that some of the threats faced by the European Union "are beyond NATO's competence."

“Europe should be autonomous in such areas as technology, trade, exchange rate, control over migration flows,” explained the head of European diplomacy.

At the end of November, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg in an interview with Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung stressed that the European Union "cannot defend Europe" without US support.

In his opinion, only the presence of the United States military will give the EU a security guarantee. 

“The US security guarantee, nuclear deterrence, and the presence of American troops in Europe are absolutely essential for the defense of Europe.

Any attempt to weaken the bond between North America and Europe will weaken NATO as well and split Europe, ”he said.

• EU and US flags

• © Francois Lenoir / Reuters

The NATO secretary general also said that talks about the EU's independence will push the US to reduce support for the European Union.

“And if we pretend that the EU can single-handedly defend Europe, there is another risk,” Stoltenberg said.

- Political forces in the United States, which oppose multilateralism and transatlantic cooperation, use this as an excuse to reduce their commitments to Europe.

One thing remains: to cooperate. "

"Will make NATO unnecessary"

According to Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies, IMEMO RAN, the EU has been debating for a long time whether the union should have its own armed forces and follow an autonomous concept.

"We are talking, in particular, about whether the European Union needs to act independently in military matters or still coordinate its actions with NATO and the United States," the analyst explained in a conversation with RT.

Olenchenko said that the concept of the EU's strategic autonomy implies expanding the EU's capabilities to conduct military operations without relying on the United States and NATO.

According to Vladimir Schweitzer, head of the department of social and political research at the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Brussels' theses also "can be seen as a bridge to the new American administration."

“However, there is no feeling that relations between the countries will improve dramatically and they will be friends as before.

Do not assume that Biden is an alternative to Trump.

American foreign policy is quite stable, and Trump has not deviated so much from the general course of the United States, "the expert said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, the intensification of talks about autonomy "can be aimed at getting help from the United States to finance defense spending, including within the framework of commitments to NATO," Schweitzer said.

"Indeed, due to the coronavirus pandemic, EU defense spending will be greatly reduced," the analyst explained.

According to the deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, Vladimir Shapovalov, the idea of ​​European autonomy, including in the military-strategic sphere, "was actualized in the conditions of cooling relations with the United States."

And in Washington, "to put it mildly, they do not approve" the EU's initiative on strategic autonomy, Olenchenko added for his part.

“After all, it also includes the expansion of investments, government subsidies in the defense industry of the EU countries.

It turns out that a significant part of defense orders will come from the EU, not the United States.

Many countries of the united Europe, which have a strong military-industrial complex, such as Germany, France and Italy are interested in this, ”the expert said.

• Council of Europe

• Reuters

• © Yves Herman

Olenchenko did not rule out that the new statement of the Council of Europe about the EU's intentions to follow its strategic course and build up "the potential for autonomous action" is an attempt to show the US that the EU "would like to rely more on its industry."

However, Washington "will do its best to resist this," the analyst said.

"The United States may impose sanctions on European dual-use enterprises that simultaneously produce weapons and civilian goods," Olenchenko said.

The European Union takes into account this outcome of events, so it will not rush to take active steps to autonomize, Shapovalov believes.

As the expert explained, Washington "wants to hinder this process, because it fears that the independence of Europe in the military and other spheres would mean a significant diminution of the interests of the United States, which currently actually dominate in Europe."

"The unification and creation of independent pan-European military-strategic forces will lead to the uselessness of the NATO structure, American military bases in Europe and, in general, to the redistribution of positions in the collective West," the expert concluded.