EU defense ministers discussed von der Leyen's proposed analogue to NATO Article 4

Brief retelling from RIA II

Ursula von der Leyen proposed creating an Emergency Security Protocol, an analogue of NATO Article 4 to respond to hybrid threats.

At a meeting of EU defense ministers, the discussion of the proposal turned out to be short and did not affect the details of the future mechanism.

The discussion is at a preliminary stage and Brussels needs to provide EU countries with concrete answers.

BRUSSELS, September 29 - RIA Novosti. At a meeting on Monday, EU defense ministers did not receive clarification on the mechanism of the work of the analogue of NATO Article 4 proposed by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to respond to hybrid threats; the discussion turned out to be short and did not touch upon the details of the future mechanism, Rapporteur reports, citing two EU diplomats.

Two weeks ago, von der Leyen proposed the creation of an Emergency Security Protocol, comparing it to Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides for consultation of allies when security threats arise. The new EU mechanism is supposed to be used to coordinate a response to hybrid actions in the “gray zone” that do not reach the threshold of armed aggression.

“The conversation was very short,” two EU diplomats told the publication, noting that the ministers did not go into detail about the proposed mechanism.

EU diplomacy chief Kaja Kallas also admitted after the meeting that many ministers had asked what exactly the new protocol would be in order to understand whether they were ready to support it.

“Not everyone has spoken on this topic, so I don’t have an answer to the question of whether there is a majority or not in support of such a tool,” Callas said.

According to her, the discussion is at a very preliminary stage, and Brussels now needs to provide EU countries with concrete answers. There is no timeline for the presentation of the official project yet. It is expected that the proposal will be included in the European Security Strategy, which is planned to be prepared by the end of the year.