Both NATO and the EU want to spend a €100 billion on defense — and that’s leading to clashes between the two Brussels-based institutions.

The European Union is donning its camouflage pants and flexing its muscles on defense. NATO isn’t happy.

For years, the two Brussels-based institutions have barely communicated when it comes to defense, except for some military cooperation in areas like the Balkans — because they haven’t had to. Defense was NATO’s turf (it is a military alliance, after all), while the EU dealt with trade, farming, climate change and things like standards for heritage cheeses.

It was summed up by a catchphrase popular in military circles: “The U.S. fights, the U.N feeds, the EU funds.”

That’s now changing.

  • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    6 months ago

    The EU has different goals than NATO. So it would be prudent to collect input from NATO, but the goal is different.