EU: Commission prepares operational plan for Article 42.7

“There are a series of questions that require answers – continues the president of Cyprus – let’s say that France activates article 42.7: which countries will be the first to respond to the French requests? What are the needs of the country that activates them? All these things will be put into the project, to have an operational plan to implement. The EU countries that are not in NATO”, like Cyprus, “see the need to have an operational plan for article 42.7 of the TEU”.

The item has been activated only oncefrom France after the attacks of 13 November 2015. However, to date, there are no plans to make it effectively operational. The clause was introduced in 2009: it states that EU countries are obliged to assist a member state “victim of armed aggression on its territory”. This support should be consistent with possible NATO actions.

No formal procedure has been defined so far and the article, unlike Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, does not foresee expressly military assistance. In this way, even countries such as Austria, Cyprus and Ireland, which maintain a policy of neutrality, can collaborate.

Not all EU member countries agree on the need to make Article 42.7 operational as they fear, at a time like this in which American President Donald Trump continually attacks NATO, of giving the impression that the EU is working to become an alternative to the Atlantic Alliance, which could trigger reactions by the American president.