According to Euractiv, the EU Diplomatic Service under Kaja Kallas is drafting a text to make mutual defense, as per Article. 42.7 TEU, effective. Sources interviewed by Euractiv insist that they want the EU to have something similar to NATO’s Article 5. They will carry out bureaucratic simulations in order to find out what happens when NATO Article 5 is activated, when TEU Article 42.7 is activated, and when both are activated. They expect to have a sort of “manual” as early as May.
From a legal standpoint, TEU Article 42.7 is stricter than NATO Article. 5. Whereas the latter prescribes consultations among members in order to decide how to react to an aggression against a member country, the former says that EU member countries “shall have an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power.” However, NATO is the US plus some dwarfs; the EU is a collection of dwarfs. It is not difficult to see, behind Kallas’ effort, the push to re-launch what Germany defeated at the last EU Council meeting, i.e., a centralized, supranational rearmament plan.
