Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stated in remarks in Strasbourg that the European Union needs a NATO-like security mechanism to better respond to incidents related to drones, sabotage, and cyberattacks. She emphasized that many of these incidents are attributed to Russia.
The necessity of creating a hybrid counter program
Von der Leyen stated: "Europe needs a hybrid counter program. We need an immediate consensus on how to respond to certain incidents, especially for actions that are 'below the threshold of armed aggression but clearly threaten our national security.'" These remarks come as officials from Germany, Denmark, and Poland have recently accused Russia of interfering in incidents related to drones and sabotage.
Recent incidents and Europe's response
This week, Italian fighter jets, in cooperation with NATO, shot down a drone in the airspace of Lithuania, one of the EU member countries. This is the first time a drone has been shot down in the airspace of this country, and it is believed that this drone entered from Belarus, one of Russia's allies.
However, Europe and NATO face challenges in finding the best way to respond to actions that do not amount to direct aggression. Von der Leyen stated that this mechanism should be similar to Article 4 of the NATO founding treaty; an article that allows countries that feel threatened to hold emergency meetings.
She added: "When one of the member countries activates this mechanism, all member countries will gather to coordinate a European response to prevent further escalation and mitigate its impact." This is while NATO's Article 5 guarantees collective security, allowing all member countries of the treaty to assist if one of them is attacked.
Von der Leyen also noted that the European Commission will "present its ideas for establishing a European Security Council," which will include cooperation with other international partners such as the UK, Canada, Norway, and Ukraine. No further details have been provided in this regard.
