The time to accelerate joint European defense without the US

While Trump's and his administration's insults towards the European Union do not subside, European leaders agreed yesterday in Cyprus to shift into fifth gear to achieve a common defense system. What happened this Friday is a demonstration of how much this process needs to be accelerated. In the morning, we woke up to the news that an email circulating within the Pentagon proposed the option of "kicking out" Spain from NATO, as a warning to other countries that refuse to help in the United States and Israel's war against Iran. It is an internal email, not an official statement, and experts warn that it has little traction and at most would mean removing Spain from command or leadership of missions, but the threat is there. Mid-morning, the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, dedicated part of his press conference to criticizing Europeans and pointing out that the conference of countries on the Strait of Hormuz, organized last week by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, was "ridiculous" and "ostentatious." Furthermore, he reproached them again for not participating in the war with the veiled threat that the "protection" they had from the United States until now has ended.

This morning, the British newspaper Financial Times also published an interview with the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, in which he questions the "loyalty" of the United States in the event of a Russian attack on Europe. "The most important question for Europe is whether the United States is prepared to be as loyal as our [NATO] treaties describe," says the former President of the European Council. Internal loyalty within NATO, therefore, is more in doubt than ever, especially because the United States considers itself to be NATO and that the rest must obey its orders and support them in their attacks even if the operation has not been consulted beforehand. The demand for vassalage is replacing collaboration between allies.

In this context, it is not surprising that European leaders meeting in Cyprus these days have wanted to take steps to reactivate Article 42.7 on collective defense of the community treaties, which is the equivalent of NATO's Article 5. As explained by the President of the European Council, António Costa, the manual is already underway to know when this mutual assistance clause can be activated, which would allow us to know how, with what, and under what circumstances each country can be activated to help others in the event of an attack. It is a first step while the European disconnection, still impossible, from the Atlantic Alliance is being considered, if a European defense system that does not depend on American technology and weaponry, as is currently the case, is finally configured.

There is no shortage of arguments to move forward, but it is evident that it is a delicate issue, because for now the United States continues to be militarily the main world power. Especially because, beyond the army, they control the technology that now dominates modern warfare. And it is here where, without a doubt, Europe must get its act together.