Kaja Kallas asserts EU mutual assistance complements NATO’s collective defence

There is no inherent contradiction between the European Union‘s mutual assistance clause and NATO’s collective defence, High Representative Kaja Kallas told EU News as Washington ramps up criticism against the transatlantic alliance over the war in Iran.

Article 42.7 of the EU treaties allows a member state under “armed aggression” to request assistance from the other member states, which can take various forms, such as military, economic, diplomatic and medical aid.

Article 5 of NATO is worded differently. It says an armed attack against one ally “shall be considered an attack against them all” and explicitly mentions military force as a possible response to “restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area”.

“I wouldn’t contradict those two (articles) because they have been always coexisting,” Kallas told EU News on the sidelines of an informal EU summit in Cyprus.

“There’s a very strong European pillar in NATO that is there and is actually stronger now because we are all making more investments in our defence,” she added.

“It is in no way that if Article 5 is not working, then we can go for 42.7. These are complementary to each other.”

Until recently, Article 42.7 was a low-profile provision in the treaties that few knew about. It has been used only once: by France in 2015.

However, US President Donald Trump’s contentious attempt in January to seize Greenland from Denmark through punitive tariffs plucked the clause out of obscurity, with some fretting the unprecedented crisis would precipitate NATO’s collapse.

Weeks later, the war in the Middle East brought further attention to Article 42.7 when an Iranian-made Shahed drone struck a British military base in Cyprus.

Since Cyprus is one of the few EU countries outside NATO, it cannot benefit from Article 5 of collective defence, so it would have to rely on the bloc’s mutual assistance.

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides put the matter on the agenda of the informal summit, where Kallas briefed leaders. The EU must develop a “clear manual that ensures the union acts as a credible guarantor of security”, Christodoulides said.

Making 42.7 work

The High Representative is currently working with member states to give practical meaning to Article 42.7. The exercise is based on three hypothetical types of attacks, she explained in the interview with EU News.

The first is an attack on an EU country that is not a NATO ally, such as Austria, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta. The second is an attack on a country that is both an EU and NATO member, to see how Article 42.7 and Article 5 would interact with “each other”. And the third is an attack that falls below NATO’s threshold because of its hybrid nature.

A new exercise among EU ambassadors in Brussels is scheduled in the coming days.

“How do we operate in these three scenarios? The treaties are quite general. We need to operationalise this article (42.7) by mapping what we have done, what the possibilities are, who does what in what case, and how we are all working together,” Kallas said.

“We need to do it fast.”

Another reason why Article 42.7 has risen to the top is because of Trump’s public threat to withdraw the US from NATO, which he revived after allies refused to send military warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, currently under Iran’s tight grip.

A leaked email suggests the Pentagon has outlined a set of options aimed at penalising allies that rejected calls to assist in the war on Iran, suspending Spain’s membership of NATO and undermining support for British territorial control of the Falklands.

While in Cyprus, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez shut down questions about the report, saying the government relies on “official documents and positions”, not leaks.

In a bid to quell Trump’s fury, France and the UK have pitched a “strictly defensive” multinational force to escort commercial ships and demine the seas. But the plan, which involves nations from Europe and across the world, is still in very early stages.

Kallas says the EU can contribute by strengthening and expanding its two naval missions in the region, known as Aspides and Atalanta, to allow them to operate in the Strait of Hormuz. However, it could be difficult to secure the necessary unanimity to make the legal changes, given the sharp divisions among member states.

“Everybody around the table has been very clear that this can only be (done) after the cessation of hostilities,” Kallas said.

“But the easiest way, of course, is to ramp up the operations that have a command structure that are already in place and can be used.”