Too little, too late – and still no strategy

It was supposed to be a response to Putin and Trump. But the ‘historic’ war summit in Brussels brought no solutions, only new problems. – A commentary

This EU summit will go down in history. Not as a great success, but as a historic defeat. 

68 years after the Treaty of Rome, which laid the foundations for European reconciliation after the Second World War, and 35 years after German reunification, the EU is embarking on a new arms race. 

In doing so, it is betraying its historic mission. Instead of peace and reconciliation ‘from the Atlantic to the Urals’ (Adenauer, De Gaulle), it is now preaching a ‘rearmament’.

This slogan alone, issued by Commission President and former German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, is a slap in the face for all history-conscious Europeans. 

The EU has never been armed, it does not even have its own army. The EU treaty prohibits Brussels from spending money on weapons. But the CDU politician ignores this. 

Of course, the situation is serious. Russia is at war in Ukraine, the USA is shaking up its alliance commitments. But none of this is new. 

We have known for eight years that Donald Trump does not bode well for the EU and Nato: since his first term as US President. And that peace in Europe is under threat has been clear since the Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

Only now have EU politicians put one and one together and tried to come up with an answer. However, what Olaf Scholz & Co. have decided in Brussels comes too late – and it is too little. 

And the most important thing is missing: a political strategy and a perspective for the future. Even after three years of war, the EU does not consider it necessary to develop its own peace plan for Ukraine and discuss a new European security order. 

Read on in “taz” (German). See also EU steigt in Wettrüsten ein – ohne triftige Begründungund Kriegsgipfel ohne Friedensplan (Newsletter)