Last week, European Union leaders met at an emergency summit in Brussels to discuss and adopt essential measures to strengthen Europe's defense in the face of external threats. According to previously announced plans, the meeting was to mark a turning point in the EU's defense policy, with a focus on the massive increase in defense investment and acceleration of the EU's strategic autonomy while maintaining cooperation with NATO, as well as the strengthening of the military and economic support for Ukraine. The experts invited to IPN’s public debate "Europe's security at a historic crossroads. What is Moldova's place?" discussed the need for such a turning point in the EU's defense policy and the place or even fate of the Republic of Moldova in this European security and defense context.
IPN project's permanent expert Igor Boţan said that the European Union is an economic and political community composed of 27 European countries, known as "member states" or "EU countries". Together, they cover a large part of the European continent. Around 450 million people live in the EU, which is about 6% of the world's population. The citizens of the EU countries are also EU citizens.
"The European Council is an institution of the European Union. It consists of the heads of state or government of the member states of the Union. The President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, currently António Costa, also participate in meetings without the right to vote, as does the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy," noted the expert. According to him, the role of the European Council is to define the EU’s overall political direction and priorities.
The European Commission is also an EU institution, responsible for drafting legislative proposals, implementing decisions, complying with the EU treaties and managing the EU's day-to-day work. In fact, the Commission is the EU's politically independent executive body. It operates as a cabinet government, with a particular number of members, established by the European Council.
Igor Boţan said that the EU has the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), which is an integral part of the Union's common foreign and security policy. The CSDP is the main policy framework through which the Member States can develop a European security and defense strategy, tackle conflicts and crises together, protect the Union and its citizens. After February 24, 2022, when Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine began, a geopolitical reset for Europe was necessary to give a boost to what must become an EU defense union.
Executive director of the Institute for Strategic Initiatives (IPIS) Vladislav Kulminski, former Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration, said the discussions about the augmentation of spending for the defense sector did not appear yesterday or today. This important thing has been discussed for a very long time. It is necessary to start with the postwar order established after World War II. That is when the Transatlantic Alliance between the U.S. and the countries of Western Europe was formed. It involved massive aid, specifically for economic development, from the U.S. for European countries, which were destroyed during the war. In 1949, NATO was created and its provisions stipulated that, if one member state is attacked, the rest of the states will come to its defense.
"For 70 years, the entire world order was basically based on this Transatlantic Alliance, because together with the EU, which was created later, the U.S. was really a world superpower. The U.S. extended its security umbrella for the EU. And, essentially, the U.S. largely covered the costs for this defense offered to the EU. The Union, for its part, developed very well under this umbrella. This is why the social protection system in the EU is so well established," explained Vladislav Kulminski.
He noted that the debates on defense have now intensified due to the Russian Federation's war of aggression against Ukraine. This war underlined that the security dangers for the EU have not disappeared. Now, the Russian Federation decided to re-establish its sphere of influence in the so-called immediate neighborhood through war. Seeing that the war returned to the European continent, which seemed unimaginable, the EU has to increase military spending, to create a stronger defense sector, and the U.S. wants to redefine its role in the region
“For the Republic of Moldova, practically all the options are on the table and no decision has been made about us. I think that for the first time in our history, we have a political opportunity to define our fate. Let us decide and say very clearly who we want to be with - we want to be with the EU and the EU countries in this geopolitical redistribution or we want to return to the sphere of influence of the Russian Federation, to where we were," said the IPIS director.
Mihai Isac, foreign policy and security expert, said that the states of Old Europe, the states that were part of the organizations that preceded the European Union – Federal Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium – had an impressive military industry by the end of the Cold War. There were states that supported extremely important national armies. All these states had compulsory military service and were practically prepared for a confrontation, including nuclear confrontation, with the occupying Soviet army in Germany, Poland and other countries.
"In addition to the American military bodies deployed on the European continent, the European states, for their part, are, however, a regional military power. We have states with a strong naval military tradition, such as France, Spain or Italy. Germany is also among the world's leading arms manufacturers. And the weapons systems manufactured in Germany are considered among the best in the world – submarines, the famous Leopard and more," said Mihai Isac.
According to him, these Western European states, but also the states that were under communist domination until 1989-1990 – Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary – implemented a series of measures to reduce the arms industry amid the economic problems of those years, but also to massively reduce the number of soldiers. "Gradually, these states, including Romania in 2007, gave up compulsory military service, a decision that we see affected the capacity to mobilize human resources to strengthen the defense sector. At the moment, steps are being taken in Romania to create territorial defense bodies, but it is a process that cannot have immediate results and will take a number of years," explained the expert.
In his opinion, it is time for the European Union to transpose its economic and political capacities into security terms. However, due to the fact that the European states do not cooperate with each other in the field of defense, they lose tens of billions of euros annually. And there has already been talk about the need for extensive programs – joint procurement, which would reduce costs.
The public debate entitled "Europe's security at a historic crossroads. What is Moldova's place?" was staged as part of the series of debates "Developing political culture through public debates". IPN Agency implements the project with support from the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.
