by Emilio DE CAPITANI
The European Council Conclusions of March 6th extraordinary meeting mark an unexpected change of course towards an European Union defence policy. If confirmed at the next meeting on March 20th/21st, this would see the European ship leave a safe port – even if essentially intergovernmental – to set sail for a destination that, at least from these first steps, seems to be clearly drifting away from the main course that the Union’s institutions have always followed until now. The course is one that, over the last 70 years, has allowed an entire Continent to live in peace, without any need for rearmament, through the use of the “community method” and economic and civil integration. A continent that had previously been the scene of two world wars, both triggered by imperialistic ambitions and, in the second, also by the ethical baseness of a violence never before reached in the history of human civilization.
Returning to the theme of the drift of the Conclusions of March 6, it is worth saying that what caused the shift was not so much Putin’s aggression against Ukraine (already underway since 2014 following the invasion of Crimea) but rather US President Trump’s position making clear to the other NATO allies that, in the event of military aggression of a member state, the protection of the American umbrella will be no longer automatic nor the financial contribution to this North Atlantic defense pact by the United States. Following these messages Ursula Von Der Leyen (VDL), President of the Commission, after, most probably having received the green light from the chancelleries of most EU member states, presented on March 5th a first plan, inappropriately called the “Re-arm Europe”, and whose objectives, as expected, have been, at least for the time being, unanimously approved by all the members of the European Council.
European public opinion has thus, suddenly, realized, that within the European Council, the highest political body of the European Union bringing together the Heads of State and Government, there is a great desire to take up arms, without any of them having consulted, beforehand, not even their parliaments in public session or, at least, the European Parliament. It looks that, once again, these leaders consider that it’s better to give this news to their citizens only after the fact, even though the same citizens, in the case of “rearmament” will not only put in their money but also the people necessary to ensure the increased defense measures. Moreover it will be easy, for these Heads of State and Government returning home from Brussels, to explain to the their national press that all the other colleagues pushed for it and “Brussel” has decided it. All for one (the Member States), and one for all (the Union), as usual….
Why is it “improperly” called a “Rearm Plan”? First of all, because the word “rearmament” has been banned from the European political lexicon since the Schuman Declaration of 1950. Secondly, because the term “rearmament” – that is, a return to the use of weapons – does not evoke a defensive intention, and even less of peace, as it could be, for example: “the new EU Military Defense Plan”. If until now the Union, in order to achieve peace, has welcomed millions of displaced Ukrainians, deployed money and adopted restrictive measures against Russia, the time has come, after President Trump’s announcements, of launching an European Union diplomatic initiative, according to the most authentic ” community method” and re-launch the role of the United Nations, rediscover the spirit of the Helsinki Accords that in 1975 contributed to overcoming the East-West divide on the European continent and try to bring the countries directly and indirectly involved around a table.
In any case, the plan proposed by President VDL, consisting of two distinct financial packages, raises serious reservations, not only political, but also parliamentary and legal.
The first package is the loosening of budgetary constraints up to 1.5% for defense spending by member states. Overall, this initiative should free up to 650 billion euros of national resources, to be spent not so much on the development of the defense industries already present in some Member States, but following a new European defense strategy. And this should happen through a mechanism of indebtedness that had not even been granted to the Member States for the achievement of fundamental objectives such as social protection or the fight against pollution…. From a European perspective, the choice may be questionable also due to the fact that, in March 2024, the Commission itself has already submitted to the European legislator an “EDIP” draft regulation (1) see below).
From a national perspective, however, it will be up to the parliaments of the Member States to decide whether or not to support the choices of their governments
Well, it’s clear that since this is a financial plan combined with the second basket of the VDL proposal engaging 150 billion euro on the EU Budget, all the national and European parliaments will wait until the next European Council on March 21st to find out if the Council, on the proposal of the Commission, will indeed adopt a new financial instrument in favor of Member States on art. 122 TFEU (2) as announced by the Commission President Von Der Leyen’s proposal to establish “a new EU instrument under Article 122 TFEU to provide Member States with loans backed by the EU budget.” According to the letter “ With up to EUR 150 billion, this instrument would strongly support EU efforts to achieve a rapid and significant increase in investments in Europe’s defence capabilities – now and over this decade. Such funding could be used for priority capabilities domains for which action is necessary at European level, in alignment with NATO:
- air and missile defence;
- artillery systems;
- missiles and ammunition;
- drones and anti-drone systems;
- strategic enablers and critical infrastructure protection, including in relation to space;
- military mobility;
- cyber, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare.
Further increasing the impact of this new instrument would be achieved by buying together, which would ensure interoperability and predictability, reduce costs, and create the scale needed to strengthen our European defence industrial base.” (emphasis added)
The “new instrument” proposed by the President of the Commission is therefore much more ambitious than the initiatives undertaken until now by the EU in this field. Moreover, it presupposes the definition, at a European level, of “priority capability areas where action is needed at the European level, in line with NATO”. Therefore prior consultation with NATO (where the US ambassador sits) is foreseen, while the European Parliament itself is not involved, even if not only European taxpayer/citizen money is at stake, but also the content of policies that affect its rights and vital interests.
But, with the current Treaty, who is authorized to make this kind of decision?
The answer is not simple because the Treaties, even after Lisbon, have provided a framework that is ambiguous to say the least, if not incomplete and contradictory. This is because, at least until recently, the majority of Member States relied on the NATO Treaty for the defense of the Union’s territory, in a sort of division of labor with the EU Treaties (see art. 42 TEU). However,following the recent positions taken on the other side of the Atlantic, this division of labor is now being questioned and various solutions are being studied, first and foremost that of the construction of a “European pillar” within NATO. However, the impression is that this too is a temporary solution and that, sooner or later, the European Union must finally assume responsibility for its own defense.
If this is the medium to long term perspective, it should be self evident that the European Union, even before a future formal amendment of the Treaties, must apply to this “European” rearmament plan the same fundamental democratic principles, as it does to the rest of European policies. It would indeed be paradoxical that in fields that are sensitive and essential for the security of citizens in the face of increasing external threats the EU will not abide to the principles according to which “the functioning of the Union is founded on representative democracy” (art.10.1 TEU) or that according to which “Every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union. Decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen. (art.10.3 TEU).
In such constitutional context, the Commission’s proposal to base the financing of 150 billion on the basis of art.122 TFEU, without the direct involvement of the European Parliament, is highly questionable, not to say contrary to Union law. It is worth noting that Article 122, has been already used in the past to try to stem the Greek Euro crisis, the COVID crisis and the energy crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it is a legal basis suitable only for emergency measures in the economic domain, and therefore unusable in situations dealing with defence and that can last for years. Suffice it to remember that during the Euro crisis art.122 TFEU was abandoned by the same Member States who proposed it because they recognized that it was necessary, for a medium long perspective, to adopt a real Treaty, even though “complementing” the TEU (the European Stability Mechanism – ESM).
So a first reason why art.122 TFEU, should be excluded as a legal basis justifying a Council measure aimed at defending the citizens of the Union, in the years to come is that it is a temporary measure, even though is intended, as President VDL herself admits in her letter, to be valid for at least the next decade. But, most importantly, art. 122 does not foresee the involvement of the European Parliament which, as it happened for the European Council conclusion on the Rearm Europe project, will be “informed” only after the fact. Democratic control, which in military matters and the recruitment of people to be entrusted with the use of arms, are the basis of the Constitution of every democratic state, must also be respected within the EU by involving the EP in these extremely important political decisions, and this through the identification of an appropriate legal basis that involves it. In this perspective President VDL proposal is in itself not only clearly anti-parliamentary, anti-democratic but it contradicts the assessment according to which we are facing historic times. So, why not take this occasion to set the basis for a true EU defence policy in the Treaty instead of prolonging the current anti-democratic regime set fifteen years ago for the EU Defense policy?
Let’s hope that the European Parliament will take this occasion to re-establish the EU institutional balance also in this domain and will formally reserve the right, starting with its next resolutions on defense, to challenge before the Court of Justice any type of measure or act taken without its prior and effective involvement. Moreover, since this matter also directly involves the national parliaments, the European Parliament should also call them together in the spirit and letter of Article 12 TEU, according to which they contribute to the European construction (thereby also strenghtening parliamentary democracy within the EU).
As for the merits, it is only necessary to remember that, according to articles 3 to 6 TFEU, the Union has no direct powers regarding rearmament, and it may be questionable whether it has any regarding support for member states [i];
In this context and, as the Treaty currently stands, the only possible legal basis for such involvement of the Union and the association of the EP in the construction of a defense policy is that of art. 352.1 TFEU according to which ” If action by the Union should prove necessary, within the framework of the policies defined in the Treaties, to attain one of the objectives set out in the Treaties, and the Treaties have not provided the necessary powers, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, shall adopt the appropriate measures. (emphasis added) It is worth recalling that previous amendments of the Treaties were anticipated by legislative measures adopted with this “implicit” powers legal basis.
That having been said it is quite likely that for different political and institutional reasons the EU will not be ready to use art.352 TFEU ( notably because it requires unanimity in the Council and we all know how slippery the situation is in the Council when Unanimity is at stake…) However, another alternative, even if less clean and straight, is to integrate the VDL Objectives and the 150 billion financing in the draft “EDIP” Regulation(3) currently under discussion at the EP and the Council which already foresee the adoption of an EU Defense Strategy. It is worth mentioning that, despite all the limitations of this proposal already denounced by the European Court of Auditors , EDIP would follow an ordinary legislative procedure, thus guaranteeing the full co-responsibility of the European Parliament without requiring unanimity in the Council as provided for in Article 352 TFEU. Negotiations are proceeding swiftly in both the Council and the European Parliament and this should allow the inter-institutional negotiations (trilogue) to start as soon as possible.
As explained above there are therefore serious alternatives to recourse to Article 122 that the European Parliament may raise to protect its constitutional prerogatives in the face of an initiative by which the European Council, the Council and the Commission exclude it from the decision-making process. By appealing to the Court, against the choice of that legal basis (NDR : moreover emergency measures in the defence sector require art.222 TFUE and not 122 TFUE) the Parliament would not only defend its constitutional prerogatives, but also the fundamental need of respect democratic principles, the Rule of Law and, above all, the rights of the citizens who elected it, even in matters of defense. Then, who knows, the Council and the Commission could accept the fall back position of dealing with these matters in codecision with the EP through the EDIP legislative proposal…
NOTES
1 REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing the European Defence Industrial Program and a framework for measures to ensure the timely availability and supply of defence products (“EDIP”) (2024/0061(COD) Link https://eur-lex.europa. eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52024PC0150
2 Article 122 (ex Article 100 of the TEC) 1.Without prejudice to any other procedures provided for in the Treaties, the Council, on a proposal from the Commission, may decide, in a spirit of solidarity between Member States, upon the measures appropriate to the economic situation, in particular if severe difficulties arise in the supply of certain products, notably in the area of energy. 2. Where a Member State is in difficulties or is seriously threatened with severe difficulties caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences beyond its control, the Council, on a proposal from the Commission, may grant, under certain conditions, Union financial assistance to the Member State concerned. The President of the Council shall inform the European Parliament of the decision taken.
(3) The legal bases for the draft EDIP Regulation aimed at ensuring the timely availability and supply of defense products are (1) Article 173 TFEU in relation to the competitiveness of the EDTIB; (2) Article 114 TFEU in relation to the European Defense Equipment Market (EDEM); (3) Article 212 TFEU in relation to strengthening Ukraine’s DTIB and (4) Article 322 TFEU in relation to financial provisions.
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