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Currently the EU cannot offer any hard security guarantees to EaP countries targeted by Moscow, Steven Blockmans, senior research fellow, the head of the 'EU foreign policy' and 'politics and institutions' units of the Centre for European Policy Studies CEPS (Belgium), said at the internet press conference organized by “Region” Research Center.

“The EU is a soft power. It does currently not have the strategic autonomy and military capabilities to offer any hard security guarantees to EaP countries targeted by Moscow. That said, Russia’s shock to the European security order has triggered a new debate in capitals of member states and at the EU’s headquarters about the need to build up a military autonomy for the EU to protect its interests in its strategic neighborhood,” Blockmans noted. 

“The European Council in June is expected to discuss new plans for member states to pool and share their defense planning, budgets and capabilities. Just like we have seen the emergence of an Energy Union in February, partially in response to Gazprom’s unpredictable behavior over the past years, we may now be seeing the initial steps towards the creation of a future European Defence Union which acts complementary to NATO insofar as territorial defense is concerned and in an autonomous capacity insofar as unique EU interest in the neighborhood are concerned,” he added.