On 21 March 2022, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence of the EU Member States approved EU’s strategic compass for security and defence. It will be formally adopted by the European Council on 24-25 March. The Strategic Compass reinforces the Union’s overall vision of its role in protecting the security of European citizens, values and principles, and sets out concrete measures to achieve the 2030 targets.
The development of the document took place in the conditions of a significant deterioration of the security environment in Europe, which reached its critical point with Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and its people. Russia’s war against Ukraine and its impact on the development of the EU’s security and defence capabilities were reflected in the latest draft of the document at the urging of a group of like-minded member states, including Bulgaria.
The use of military force and the growing geopolitical confrontation and fragmentation in Europe are not the only threats that the EU should take into account when planning its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). They are accompanied by hybrid strategies, incl. disinformation, cyber attacks, economic coercion, direct interference in elections, instrumentalization of illegal migration, as well as transnational challenges such as climate change, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, new destructive technologies.
Against this background, Bulgaria has consistently argued that the main goal of the Strategic Compass is to make a decisive contribution to strengthening the EU’s role in protecting world peace and security. At the same time, we believe that the EU should continue to give priority attention and resources to tackling the challenges and threats in its immediate surroundings, in particular in the Western Balkans, the Black Sea region and the Eastern Neighborhood. This statement is directly confirmed in the context of Russian military aggression in Ukraine.
The Strategic Compass includes specific commitments for enhanced dialogue and cooperation with the countries of the Western Balkans and with the Eastern Partnership CSDP and the European Peace Instrument. The decision to finance military aid to Ukraine through the € 1 billion European Peace Instrument is not only a strong signal of EU solidarity, but also a practical implementation of the strategic guidelines of the Strategic Compass.
The war in Ukraine also strongly emphasized the need to resolutely strengthen the strategic partnership and complementarity between the EU and NATO in their common pursuit of European security, principles and values.
The EU’s integrated approach to security is a unique comparative advantage of the Union, combining EU civilian and military missions and crisis management operations with its development and humanitarian aid instruments, as well as with its diplomatic missions in virtually every country in the world. The strategic compass contains guidelines for the development of the defence capabilities of the Member States, incl. a call for increased defence spending. A new EU instrument for rapid response to external crises is being created – the so-called Rapid Deployment Capacity, numbering five thousand people.
Bulgaria supports the further deepening of the cooperation between the Member States within the Strategic Compass and the development of a joint approach to building defence capabilities. These efforts should not duplicate NATO and call into question its leading role in Europe’s collective defence, but strengthen the Euro-Atlantic community and the transatlantic link.
