This week marks the first 100 days of the von der Leyen II Commission. At a time when a week or a day can change the course of history, political instinct, courage and well-timed action are essential.
Over the past weeks, EU and non-EU members alike have come together to respond to a profound shift in US foreign and security policy regarding commitments to keeping Europeans safe in the future.
For now, NATO continues to be the umbrella under which European security is organised. But what if the US turned into a malign actor, and Europeans had to set up alternative structures for defence planning and command, as Christian Mölling and Torben Schütz contemplate in a recent EPC commentary?
In such a scenario, one option would be to organise European security under the umbrella of the EU. This would acknowledge the key political role that the European Council has played in navigating through years of permacrisis and would make it the platform for political decisions that would then be translated into military strategy. Defence planning and command would have to be part of the broader institutional set-up of the European Union. This would require collaboration with key non-EU countries such as the UK, Türkiye, and Norway, EU countries who have not been NATO members, as well as non-European partners – first and foremost Canada. EU governments undermining the overall consensus would be excluded. None of the above will be easy.
To many, such a scenario will sound naïve. Yet, times like this call for an abundance of ideas rather than a closing down of options.
Underestimating the political glue of EU membership that has developed over the past decades in spite of the controversies the Union has faced would ignore this strong European asset at a time of vulnerability.
Almut Möller is Director for European and Global Affairs and head of the Europe in the World programme at the European Policy Centre.
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