Does the Strategic Compass herald a stronger EU in security and defence?

The EU Strategic Compass sets out a realistic vision for EU security policy. It is now up to member-states to live up to their promises. 

 
Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine marks the start of a more dangerous era in European security. The more threatening international environment created by Russia’s invasion gives the newly-released EU Strategic Compass extra significance, as it sets out the EU’s ambitions in security and defence over the next decade.

The starting point of the Compass is a threat analysis. The Union faces a range of “multifaceted and often interconnected” threats and challenges. The Compass rightly paints a gloomy picture: the EU is “surrounded by instability and conflicts”. To its east, it faces a revanchist Russia which threatens the EU’s neighbours and the Union itself. Russia also poses a threat in the south, through its interventions in Syria and Libya and its influence in the Sahel. The challenge from China is briefly sketched out, with Beijing seen as a partner in some areas, an economic competitor and a systemic rival – a characterisation that may be overtaken by events if China aligns more closely with Russia. The focus of the Compass is the EU’s neighbourhood: it carries out a tour d’horizon, from tensions in the eastern Mediterranean and instability in the MENA region to the “dangerous mix” of terrorism, weak states and poverty in the Sahel and Central Africa. More broadly, the Compass argues that geopolitical competition has affected fields like trade and data flows, and that the EU faces a multitude of broader threats like terrorism, climate change and pandemics.

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Πηγή: cer.eu