09:47 03/09/2021
After the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in the EU, the call to strengthen military capabilities is heard again. At the meeting in Brdo, Slovenia, EU ministers asked for more "hard power", but implementation remains difficult.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, called the experience of Afghanistan a "catalyst", one of those historical events that change politics and can bring a faster turn in the European defense issue. "When, if not now," Borrell asks.
Bitter end, colossal failure
German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer spoke of a "bitter end, a serious failure" in Afghanistan. It remains to be seen whether the West will be seriously damaged by this in the long run. She regrets that the Europeans "are not at the point where they should be" with their defense skills. But the credibility of Europe in the future depends on this, because until now Europe has been dependent on the USA, as was seen in Kabul, she said.
EU defense ministers discussed in Brdo, Slovenia, whether to move forward more quickly with a plan for a European rapid intervention force following developments in Afghanistan, a plan. 5000 people will have to react in the future more quickly to crises, in situations like the Kabul airport, where the evacuation of foreigners and Afghan helpers had to be ensured militarily. The planes of the Europeans stopped the moment the US withdrew its soldiers. But despite the clear disappointment of the German Minister of Defense, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and many of her colleagues, at the end of the meeting it was only agreed on the implementation in several stages of this plan, which the French have brought to the table since May.
Plan on paper
By autumn, Germany will prepare a document for the concrete implementation of this plan. "In today's debate on Afghanistan, I once again made it clear that we did not know how to respond to the withdrawal of the Americans, because we were not able to stay in Afghanistan ourselves, given the forces here," said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer .
This debate must now take place concretely, who brings what military skills, which army is ready to contribute to the common European project. According to the German minister, the necessary military capabilities exist, but they must finally be united, in order to create in the EU the "active capability in security policy", so urgent. Germany will use for this Article 44 of the EU agreements, which allows member states or a group of them to be charged with a specific mission. The idea is that countries with less interest don't get in the way of a mission they won't contribute to.
The plan is for the "rapid intervention force" project to be approved in the spring, when France holds its next EU presidency. Host Slovenia, which holds the next EU presidency, Defense Minister Matej Tonin wants more, he aims for a mechanism to decide by majority vote on military missions. All plans for "intervention or combat troops" are ultimately worthless if there are no quick decision-making mechanisms to get the soldiers on mission, he said./DW
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