Who Authorized EU to Form a Partnership with NATO?

On Jan. 10, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg signed a joint EU-NATO declaration in Brussels, which represents a huge step toward subordinating the former to the global military alliance. It instructs all 27 EU member countries to ensure “the fullest possible involvement” with the Alliance’s initiatives. The 14-point joint statement defines Russia’s “brutal” aggression as the main threat, followed by China’s “growing assertiveness.”

The global nature of the geopolitical alliance is laid out in Point #12: “As the security threats and challenges we are confronted with are evolving in scope and magnitude, we will take our partnership to the next level on the basis of our long-standing cooperation. We will further strengthen our cooperation in existing areas, and expand and deepen our cooperation to address in particular the growing geostrategic competition, resilience issues, protection of critical infrastructures, emerging and disruptive technologies, space, the security implications of climate change, as well as foreign information manipulation and interference.”

Not only NATO member countries are concerned, but the entire EU, as stated in Point #13: Thus, Sweden and Finland, as well as Austria, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta, are automatically being enrolled in NATO, whether they want to or not, and whether their Parliaments have voted on it or not. In the case of Sweden, the current veto raised by Turkiye will be worthless. “We encourage the fullest possible involvement of the NATO Allies that are not members of the EU in its initiatives. We encourage the fullest possible involvement of the EU members that are not part of the Alliance in its initiatives.”

Just to make sure that everyone understands what the new “partnership” implies in the short term, Ursula von der Leyen stated at the joint press conference, that “Ukraine should get all the necessary military equipment they need and can handle to defend their homeland”, that is, presumably with no exception. But what about objections that might be raised by various national governments, that have been elected by their citizens?