Europe is being forced to rethink its defense strategy - mostly because of US President Donald Trump, who talks about “owning” Greenland, imposes punitive tariffs and scares his European partners with a number of radical ideas. The big question in Brussels lately is: will the US honor its commitment under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which states that an attack on one of the Alliance countries is considered an attack on all the others, obliging them to defend it.
Whether this will happen is currently unclear, but the European Union actually has a similar clause - Article 42.7, which obliges member states to provide assistance “with all the means at their disposal” if another EU country is attacked. What exactly is this mutual defense clause and will the members of the European Union respect it if it is triggered?
What does Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty contain and how does it differ from Article 5 of the NATO Treaty
Juraj Majcin, a defense and security analyst at the Center for European Policy in Brussels, told DW that the main difference between the EU and NATO mutual defense clauses lies in the way in which support is provided. While the EU provision is based primarily on bilateral assistance between member states, NATO's collective defense clause reflects the broader principle of "one for all, all for one," he explains.
Former German SPD MP and defense expert Christian Klink says he finds Article 42.7 of the EU treaties more compelling than NATO's Article 5 - at least on paper. The requirement to provide assistance and support "with all the means at their disposal" can therefore be interpreted broadly - that is, "to the best of their ability," he explains. While the wording of Article 5 gives NATO countries greater latitude for national discretion, allowing each country to take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force“.
Both experts emphasize that assistance under Article 42.7 is not limited to military, but can also include humanitarian aid, financial support, as well as diplomacy. This may be particularly relevant for EU members such as Austria, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta, which have traditionally avoided participation in formal military alliances.
Have any of these clauses been activated before?
Article 5 of the NATO Treaty has been activated once before - after the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. At that time, other countries from the Alliance patrolled American airspace, and a total of 830 soldiers from 13 NATO countries took part in this mission.
Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty was similarly activated once - in response to a terrorist attack. In 2015, the so-called "Islamic State" carried out terrorist attacks in Paris. At that time, Germany and other EU members supported the French military. Additional German troops were also sent to Iraq under this article to train Kurdish soldiers. However, experts draw attention to the fact that in both cases these defense clauses came into force in circumstances for which they were not intended. Because although France was the victim of a very large terrorist attack in 2015, it has not been attacked by another country.
Mutual defense of EU countries?
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many EU countries have started to increase their defense spending and make efforts to better integrate their military systems. Christian Klink says that there is still a lot of work to be done to make Europe more capable of defending itself, but what has been done so far is real progress.
At the same time, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte recently said: “If anyone thinks that Europe can defend itself without the United States, let him keep dreaming“. Political scientist Juraj Majcin somewhat shares this opinion. “When we talk about Europe's ability to defend itself without the United States, we should not only think about the danger of a large-scale attack like the one in Ukraine. Russia also uses other means - it wants to destroy NATO politically, to show that Article 5 is useless and the Alliance is weak. That is why I think there are enough dilemmas that Russia will put us in front of,“ says the expert.
Author: Melissa Escaria Parra