Central Europe Afraid of EU’s Paper Tigers

Strategic Compass and Its Implications for the Region

15 December 2021

Marcin Zaborowski

Visegrad Insight Senior Fellow

EU Rapid Reaction Force concept is a step in the right direction if only it will be implemented.

30 years after the end of the Cold War the European Union still has a long way to go to become a meaningful defence actor. The EU has no army; its defence resources are limited and the political will that is required to develop genuine and autonomous defence capabilities is both inconsistent and scarce at best.

There are two main reasons why progress in this area has been so slow — the resistance at the level of member states and the fear of undermining NATO, which remains the primary defence point of reference for most EU member states.

However, whilst in the past, the EU was faced with a relatively stable strategic environment, there is no doubt that recent years and months have seen a rapid deterioration of the strategic context. It suffices to mention Lukashenko’s hybrid attack on the EU’s eastern borders and the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine — the EU’s direct neighbour and its associate state — for the second time in six months. These are other threats and challenges that are calling for a unified and coordinated response from the EU.

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Marcin Zaborowski

Visegrad Insight Senior Fellow

Senior Fellow at Visegrad Insight and Editor-in-Chief of Res Publica Nowa. Future of Security Programme Director at Globsec. Former director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs and CEPA Warsaw office.

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