EU hybrid response must work ‘hand in hand’ with NATO, ministers say

EU foreign and defence ministers backed further work on a new protocol for responding to hybrid threats, while stressing that it must complement rather than duplicate NATO.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said European foreign affairs and defence ministers urged her and the EU executive to not to duplicate North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) protocol when developing a playbook to deal with hybrid threats.

“Many stress that it has to be absolutely complementarity with NATO,” she said at a press conference following a foreign affairs council meeting in Brussels on Monday. “We don’t create anything additional, but this has to work hand in hand.”

Kallas could not say how many of the 27 member states supported the anti-hybrid warfare mechanism, as not all ministers took to the floor to give their views.

“Today was a very initial discussion, which means that we take this forward,” she said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen first unveiled her proposal for a so-called “emergency security protocol” in mid-September during her State of the European Union address.

The protocol aims to help member states coordinate their responses quickly when a hybrid threat is identified. It would sit under the umbrella of the new Security Strategy, spearheaded by Kallas and von der Leyen, expected for publication by the year’s end.

Von der Leyen said in her State of the European Union address that this would be “Europe’s own Article 4”.

When triggered at NATO level, Article 4 requires member countries to consult whenever an ally feels its territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.

It is the precursor to Article 5, the collective defence principle stating that an attack on one is an attack on all.

Asked by Euronews how the EU’s emergency protocol would not mimic NATO’s efforts, Kallas said NATO’s Article 4 does not necessitate action. “It’s not any kind of action plan,” she said.

“The emergency protocol is rather which tools can be used at the moment for aggression that is not armed aggression that is under the threshold of Article 5.”

‘No new pledges today’ on supplying Ukraine Patriot interceptor missiles

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Evgeniy Khmara briefed EU ministers stating he made it “very clear” that air defence support remains the country’s top priority

Kallas entered the meeting highlighting that member states and allies could use the opportunity to provide Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine from their own stockpiles to shoot down Russian airborne threats.

Ukraine desperately needs more US-made Patriot air defense systems as a shield against Russian ballistic missiles. But Patriots are in short supply after the war in Iran began, further depleting American stocks.

Experts have estimated it could take around three years for the US to restore stocks of advanced missiles and defensive interceptors to pre-war levels.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said Ukraine needs hundreds more of the interceptors to survive the upcoming winter, with the country receiving only 1% of the missiles it needs from Washington.

“On the interceptors, unfortunately, there were no new pledges made today,” Kallas clarified.

Spain and Greece have previously been lobbied by Brussels to hand over interceptors from their respective arsenals, however, have so far refused to provide any to Kyiv, citing security concerns.

Source: www.euronews.com