What European autonomy means in practice could be seen on Thursday and Friday in Brussels: the heads of state and government held their summit meeting in the European quarter, while the NATO defense ministers met a few kilometers away.

There had never been such a scheduling collision before;

Representatives from both sides shifted responsibility for this to one another.

In future, they want to coordinate better, not only when planning councils, but above all militarily.

How this can be done, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer put forward a proposal that builds a bridge between those who rely on the EU's military autonomy and those who do not want to weaken the alliance under any circumstances - in short, between France and Poland .

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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It is about the question of what an EU reaction force can look like and how it can be deployed.

The debate has been going on since May, and it was given a boost when, during the evacuation of Kabul in August, the Europeans were once again shown how dependent they are on American skills.

Paris is campaigning for a standing EU force of at least 5,000 soldiers, which should be deployable quickly and strong in combat - an "initial entry force".

Warsaw and other Eastern partners point out that NATO already has such a force.

But what if the alliance does not want to intervene itself, for example in the Sahel?

Regionally compiled units

The German answer is now: The around 1500 strong EU Battle Group, which has existed for a long time and whose leadership rotates, should only grow to brigade strength (around 5000 men) into an "EU Rapid Reaction Force", including the navy and air force, if necessary and strategic "enablers", for example for air transport or special forces. NATO would not lack these forces from the outset. Units that are registered for the Battle Group should practice together for the first time and be ready for a whole year instead of six months. In addition, the units are to be put together primarily regionally - and thus tie in with existing relationships. Germany has already done this with the Netherlands, they maintain a joint corps in Munster.

All of this is contained in a five-page “non-paper”, ie a discussion proposal that Germany, together with Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia, submitted at EU level. The FAZ has it. When the EU defense ministers, who also belong to NATO, met informally on Thursday - also a novelty - the proposal was received “very positively”, said Kramp-Karrenbauer. It was agreed that it should be included in the Strategic Compass that the EU is currently working on.

On Friday she had the opportunity to exchange ideas with the other NATO colleagues who were discussing relations with the EU.

The outgoing defense minister from the CDU, who informally involved Foreign Minister Maas, SPD, can also imagine that the EU force will be deployed under the NATO flag.

This is an important point for the Eastern Europeans who want to avoid any competition.

Expansion of the EU planning cell

There are other interesting elements in the paper. So the modest military planning cell of the EU is to be expanded so that it can also lead missions of the future troops. So far, that is in the hands of the respective nation that leads a battle group. However, it has never been used, although it has been in existence since 2007. In order to make operations easier, the possibility provided for in Article 44 of the EU Treaty is to be used in future for the EU states to oversee a coalition of the willing with a mission.

France did not sign the discussion proposal, but according to diplomats this is only because the coordination processes in Paris are lengthy.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly made it clear to her NATO colleagues on Friday that they should “not be afraid” of a stronger EU defense.

"The EU is indeed NATO's top partner," she said, but the current level of cooperation and dialogue cannot be satisfied.

France wants "tangible results".

The German proposal could point the way for this.