The need to guarantee a “strong and secure” Europe will occupy a central place in the strategic agenda that will guide the steps of the European Union by the end of the decade, a new time marked by the deterioration of the security situation in which , in a radical departure from the current legislature, priority will be given to military spending, competitiveness and food security over sustainability. This is what emerges from the document sent by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, to the leaders of the Twenty-seven after the debate held at the summit in Granada in October and in small discussion groups such as the one yesterday at night took place in Warsaw, an informal dinner attended by the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Prime Ministers of Greece, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Estonia.
Nothing in the strategic agenda that the Union prepared in 2019 pointed to the possibility of preparing for a pandemic that would stop the world two years later, the return of war to the European continent was not even considered and defense was only ‘ he mentioned in passing, as a matter in which the club had to assume more responsibility. But the document made it clear that the climate transition had to be one of the major political axes of the legislature. In 2024, this role will undoubtedly be played by military spending and the thrust of European deterrence policy, but the details of how to modulate these efforts and accommodate other priorities divide the Twenty-Seven, as was seen in the summit in March, in which Sánchez and Tusk clashed over the language that the EU must use to convey an urgent message to the population without falling into warmongering or alarmism.
The draft of the European strategy, to which La Vanguardia has had access, dedicates a large chapter to security. Among the ideas being studied are “mobilizing all necessary instruments” to ensure the ability to react in terms of defense, “substantially increasing defense spending” and cooperation with NATO, leveling the ground to increase the capacity production of the European defense industry and facilitate their access to financing, also through the European Investment Bank.
The document raises as a matter of security the enlargement of the Union, which after long years without progress in negotiations with Balkan countries away from the war has opened the doors to Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. The process must be “incentivized” but also adopt the internal reforms necessary for the club to remain operational, as well as bet on the gradual integration of new members. The harsh language regarding the migration phenomenon remains.
Competitiveness also promises to be another of the central themes of the new legislature, and in this context Michel raises the need to “guarantee our food security through a vibrant agricultural sector”, ambitious language that comes after months of protests and important concessions in the countryside. The document commits to “accelerate the energy transition”, prepare for “the new realities arising from climate change” and reduce dependencies. But the level of attention to the environment is conspicuously “weak” by the Government of Spain and has been criticized by organizations such as Greenpeace, which warns that the EU’s military ambition leaves it exposed to “ecological collapse”.
