The EU as a Defence Actor and NATO-EU Cooperation, especially in Hybrid Warfare with Russia: a new Strategic Responsibility for an EU-led NATO?

This article critically examines the process of the EU as a defence actor, its cooperation with NATO, especially in its defence against hybrid warfare, and how the EU needs a new ‘strategic responsibility’ for an EU-led NATO in front of an increasing hybridization of war by Russia. Since the beginning of the European Community in the 1950s, the idea of a ‘defence union’ re-emerged regularly in the history of the European continent. However, the presence of NATO made that idea unnecessary and unrealistic, if not even a tabu for the European Community that has always seen itself as a peaceful actor. The EU has a history of common defence and security policies since 1999, and NATO and the EU have cooperated for decades but today this seems not enough. Since the Russian war against Ukraine, and the increased use of hybridization of warfare by Russia, the EU has been forced to rethink the need to ‘defend itself by itself’, even if is unable to have a full ‘strategic autonomy. This article argues that Europe must look to a new ‘strategic responsibility, for a stronger and more focused common defence, based on a bigger contribution inside the Transatlantic Alliance. From a ‘European pillar of NATO’, the EU should go towards a ‘Europe-led NATO’, in a complementary, not overlapping way, with a stronger cooperation with and within NATO, especially in the hybrid warfare tools.