European leaders met this week in Paris and agreed to support Ukraine and strengthen the security of the European Union (Reuters)

The Spanish newspaper El Pais said - in a report - that with the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Europe was forced to think about a joint defense strategy, which it had entrusted the United States with the responsibility of protecting for 80 years within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The report wondered whether the goal of increased spending was exclusively to defend the European Union, or because of the United States’ shift toward Asia, or the Union’s willingness to intervene militarily outside its borders to ensure its access to strategic resources.

Jesús Núñez, from the Institute for Conflict Studies and Humanitarian Action, told the newspaper that Europe believed it had succeeded in its bet on building a welfare and security system that relied on Russian fuel, Chinese goods, and American power to protect itself.

misbelief

He continued that Europe, in this context, believed that it had reproduced itself to be a non-imperialist power that adopted the option of trade relations and a policy of economic exchange with rivals and potential enemies instead of wars, and believed that all of these parties shared its values ​​and principles, but all this bet proved to be a failure.

Nuñez recalled that the European security system is torn apart by internal disputes, as well as unilateral American policies in Europe, and the imperial policy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is evident in the Ukraine war, drawing a picture that exposes the Union’s inability to protect its interests on its own, in addition to the now growing fear that Donald Trump will return to power. Presidency to complete the tearing apart of the Atlantic cohesion.

According to Nuñez, with the exception of timid steps (in the field of military industrialization, for example), the claim of the desire to achieve strategic autonomy (which was formulated in 2019) was not translated into reality, neither during the economic crisis in 2008 nor during Brexit and the Corona epidemic, nor even when he was president. Trump is condescending to Europe.

The Spanish expert warned that the European Union is moving at this turtle pace, and that means accepting the loss of its influence internationally and exposing itself to a grave danger that threatens it, either because some abandon it or because others want to control it.

New challenges

Nuñez believes that a proposal to accelerate Europe's movement does not mean increasing spending to 2% per country as is rumored, but rather changing the mentality and moving from outdated national accounts to bloc-level accounts and better spending.

As for the expert at the Institute of Development and International Cooperation Studies, Tika Font, she told El País newspaper that the Ukraine war resulted in a new international situation, coinciding with the emergence of a struggle for global hegemony with China, which made the American states focus their interests in Asia, not Europe, and wants the European Union to take care of it. With his own security.

According to Font, Ukraine provided the opportunity to consider a significant increase in defense budgets, raising them to 2%, and in order for citizens to support the increases, it was necessary to raise the scarecrow of “Russia’s invasion of the European Union,” even if that was unlikely.

Font believes that the goal of the increases is to prepare Europe for military intervention abroad, specifically in countries that may prevent its access to the strategic resources necessary for its economy.

Font says that the people's desire for peace and America's decision to focus on Asia is an opportunity for the bloc to distance itself and establish a European identity that is not based on the use of military force and deterrence.

Source: El Pais