EU To Prepare Blueprint For Mutual Assistance Pact, Amid NATO Doubts

NICOSIA, April 24 (Reuters) – EU leaders have asked officials to draw up a plan for how the bloc’s previously vague mutual aid clause would work, host Cyprus said at a summit on Friday amid doubts over U.S. commitment to the NATO military alliance.

Concerns over President Donald Trump’s criticism of NATO for not supporting a war with Iran and his threat to seize Greenland from ally Denmark earlier this year have created greater urgency in defining the EU’s mutual aid provisions.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides announced that EU leaders would sign Article 42.7 of the bloc’s basic agreement at a summit in his country on Thursday evening. He said that they agreed that it was time to detail the agreement stated in the article.

“We agreed last night that the (European) Commission will prepare a plan for how we will respond if a member state triggers Article 42.7. There are a number of questions we need to answer,” Christodoulides said.

Unlike NATO’s Article 5 collective defense agreement, which is seen as the foundation of European security, the EU’s mutual assistance clause is not backed by detailed operational plans or military structures.

This system has only been activated once by France, after Islamist attackers killed 130 people in Paris in 2015, with member states contributing to EU and international military missions, freeing France to redeploy its troops.

Cyprus is particularly keen to strengthen Article 42.7 after a drone attacked a British air base on the island last month during the Iran war. The country, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, is not a member of NATO.

But some EU countries are anxious to steer clear of any actions that might suggest they are moving away from NATO and its Article 5 mutual defense treaty.

“For me, it is and will remain absolutely crucial that Article 5 is the key to our collective defense and our collective security,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told reporters on Thursday.

Article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union. Article states: “If a Member State becomes the victim of an armed attack on its territory, other Member States shall have an obligation towards it to provide assistance and support using all means at their disposal.”

“Let’s say France triggered Article 42.7. Which countries will be the first to respond to the French government’s request, what are the needs of the government or country that triggered Article 42.7? All of these will be turned into a plan,” Christodoulides said.

An EU official said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told leaders at the summit 42.7. He said he provided information about ongoing work to detail the matter.

“NATO remains the basis of collective defence,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “However, the EU has complementary tools to NATO, such as sanctions, financial aid and humanitarian aid, which could come into play in the event of Article 42.7.”

Kallas’ team prepared scenarios that included hybrid strikes, conventional strikes and a situation where both Article 42.7 and NATO’s Article 5 were triggered in parallel, the official said.

(Reporting by Andrew Gray, Michele Kambas, Julia Payne, Michele Kambas and Inti Landauro in Nicosia, Makini Brice and Lili Bayer; Writing by Ingrid Melander)