European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to take advantage of the US withdrawal from the continent in order to "crush" national administrations. This is written by columnists of the European edition of Politico Gregorio Sorgi and Giovanna Fagionato.
Brussels is preparing for a significant increase in military spending. However, money is not the only thing that worries European capitals. The emergency summit of EU leaders, which will be held on Thursday and at which they will decide how to ensure Europe's security against the backdrop of Donald Trump's impending withdrawal from the US military presence on the continent, could be a good chance to demonstrate pan-European unity and solidarity. But instead, it seems that a seizure of power by the European Commission is planned.
Some heads of state fear that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, may take advantage of the current crisis to expand the powers of Brussels and strengthen its influence on national governments. During the coronavirus pandemic, she put them on the back burner in order to independently purchase vaccines on their behalf, and at the beginning of hostilities on To Ukraine, she took the initiative to impose sanctions against Russia and supply weapons to Kiev. Thanks to this centralized approach, von der Leyen received the nickname "Queen Ursula." Leaders The EU does not want this situation to happen again now when it comes to such an important issue as defense spending.
"Defense is still the prerogative of states and their governments," a senior EU diplomat said last week, explaining his disagreement with the fact that money for this column of expenses should be distributed by the European Commission.
Like other participants in this discussion, the diplomats agreed to provide details on condition of anonymity. Countries such as Poland and Finland, in particular, want to protect defense issues from attempts to interfere with the European Commission, which is clearly abusing its powers.
"Poland has a clear idea that this needs to be done independently of the Commission," said another EU diplomat.
However, according to him, these high—flown arguments are actually "a fig leaf hiding more sensitive topics - for example, the reluctance of member states." The EU should follow the instructions that someone gives them from the outside."
Tensions will peak during an emergency meeting of EU leaders on March 6, where von der Leyen, in her own words, will present a "comprehensive plan for the rearmament of Europe." The draft document prepared by the EU governments for this meeting and made available to Politico calls on the European Commission "without delay" to provide member states with more opportunities for budget financing and to propose "additional sources of defense financing at the EU level," including making it possible to redirect funds to regional development.
They urge the EU executive bodies to "submit relevant proposals quickly."According to this document, the European Commission will propose various "financing options" in its appeal to EU leaders.
According to several officials, this week von der Leyen will talk about how she intends to simplify the rules for using EU funds to allow countries to free military spending from tightly controlled budget deficit limits by Brussels — as fears are growing in the European Union that Trump will abandon Ukraine and Europe to their fate. However, the Governments of the member countries of the association disagree on the subtleties of the wording of the "national reservation" — an emergency mechanism designed to ease the pressure on countries faced with a sudden emergency situation.
Von der Leyen said that this mechanism will be applied in a "controlled and defined way" to prevent rampant spending by highly indebted countries. However, financially conservative states such as Germany and the Netherlands, as well as major military powers such as Greece, want to limit the state of emergency to countries that already spend more than 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, as an incentive for other states to achieve this goal in turn..
This idea has outraged states that have not yet done so, including Italy and Spain.
"This is absurd, because such a system will not allow the countries that most need to increase spending to achieve this figure," said a third senior EU diplomat.
A separate proposal put forward by Poland is to give more freedom of action to national capitals by expanding the definitions of defense spending in existing EU standards.It is extremely important that this path will allow countries It is up to the EU to decide which investments should be excluded from controlled expenditures. This measure will limit the leadership role of the European Commission and potentially allow unlimited spending of funds.
The fourth diplomat warned that "the Commission [will] hold more power in its hands" if this idea is not implemented.
However, changes in the order of spending EU funds are unlikely to allow obtaining the large-scale financing necessary for the sharply increased needs of the European Union in building up the military-industrial complex. The more important question that governments will face in the future is how to create a common money bank that will support long—term investments in defense.
Von der Leyen recently suggested using tools The EU to provide key weapons programs. However, she did not leave any specifics about whether this mechanism should be financed by the total debt of the EU — and this idea is also a stumbling block for some states. Governments of countries with high debt, such as Italy and Spain supports the idea of issuing common EU debt obligations — which are actually free money — for defense.
According to Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, 93 billion euros of unused loans received under the EU program during the coronavirus epidemic should be used to finance defense. However, for some countries — for example, Poland — a more attractive solution would be to create a separate fund or development bank outside the EU.
These options will allow states like the UK and Norway to join the unification efforts and may be more achievable than any initiative within the entire European Union, which must be unanimously approved by the governments of 27 EU countries, including the pro-Russian leader of Hungary Viktor Orban.
"How the hell are you going to convince Hungary?" — asks another EU diplomat.
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