The EU’s secret exercise revealed a surprising thing – Not everyone agreed

The commitment of the United States to the defense of Europe has awakened the EU countries to take more responsibility for their own defense.

Although most of the EU countries belong to NATO and its defense article is within the scope of five, the EU also has its own mutual assistance clause, i.e. Article 42.7. It states that “if a member state is the target of an armed attack on its territory, the other member states are obliged to give it assistance with all the means at their disposal”.

The clause has only been used once in 2015, when France activated the clause after the terrorist attacks in Paris.

Now, its implementation has also been practiced for the first time.

At the beginning of May, the EU’s Political Security Committee (PSC) practiced the application of 42.7. According to an EU diplomatic source, it was a realistic and operational simulation in which the member states’ readiness to respond to diverse security threats was tested in stages.

Representatives of member countries and experts from EU institutions participated in the exercise. The purpose was to assess how the member countries recognize an escalating threat, when they would consider the situation to meet the criteria for mutual assistance in Article 42.7, and what kind of assistance they would be willing to give each other.

Cyprus and Lithuania as destinations

The focus of the exercise was on two EU member states: Cyprus and Lithuania. A scenario of hybrid influence was applied to both. In the case of Cyprus, the model was the Russian-linked sabotage attacks on shopping malls and railways that happened in Poland earlier.

According to a diplomatic source, the exercise depicted physical sabotage, attempts to disrupt transport systems and infrastructure attacks. In addition, there were cyber activities, drones and information operations targeting citizens.

The scenario in Lithuania was related to the activities of the Russian shadow fleet and the oil accident caused by it.

In the exercise, the member states had to assess at which point the crisis becomes so serious that the obligation of mutual aid according to Article 42.7 becomes relevant.

The exercise showed that views on the seriousness of the threat varied, and not all member states initially considered the situation a high threat.

During the scenario, Cyprus initially did not activate Article 42.7, while Lithuania ended up activating it. The situation illustrates well that the decision to request aid is ultimately a member country’s own political decision.

The exercise also mapped out concretely what kind of support the member countries could provide. The participants answered, among other things, whether they would provide military support, civilian capabilities, cyber assistance or other crisis management expertise and on what schedule.

At the same time, the requirements of national decision-making and coordination were evaluated. Member states are also considering their own role if they were to be attacked.

The role of EU institutions was also discussed in the exercise. According to a diplomatic source, a possible coordinating task was seen especially for the Foreign Affairs Administration.

More exercises

According to a diplomatic source, the exercise conducted in May provided valuable information on how different member countries perceive threats and their own activities.

The mutual aid exercises are also planned to continue. A larger training set is planned for the fall, combining EU Article 42.7 and NATO Article 5. The aim is to examine the coordination of the roles of the EU and NATO.

In addition, there has been a possibility in the discussions to expand the training to the ministerial level, but there is no more detailed information about the schedule or implementation method yet.