Mutual defence clause Article 42 7 TEU. What is article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty?

Описание: The Treaty of Lisbon strengthens the solidarity between EU countries in dealing with external threats by introducing a mutual defence clause (Article 42(7) of the Treaty on European Union). This clause provides that if an EU country is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other EU countries have an obligation to aid and assist it by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
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This obligation of mutual defence is binding on all EU countries. However, it does not affect the neutrality of certain EU countries and is consistent with the commitments of EU countries which are NATO members.

This provision is supplemented by the solidarity clause (Article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) which provides that EU countries are obliged to act jointly where an EU country is the victim of a terrorist attack or a natural or man-made disaster.

France has invoked the EU article after the attacks on Paris.

Article 42.7 is the solidarity clause that states that if a member of the European Union is the victim of “armed aggression on its territory” other states have an “obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power.”

This article was first invoked at the request of the French government following multiple terrorist attacks on Paris. EU countries voted unanimously in favor.

This article does not require members to take military action. Members that have traditionally been neutral, such as Ireland, Austria and Sweden, are not required to undermine this status. The article also states that it doesn’t undermine commitments under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which some, though not all, EU member states are also part of.

It was originally included in the Treaty on the insistence of Greece, which wanted to have some kind of collective defense protection outside of NATO because Turkey, its biggest military adversary, is also covered by NATO but not an EU member.

The Lisbon Treaty also includes a “solidarity clause,” Article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This article mentions the European Union specifically whereas Article 42.7 just mentions member states. By choosing to invoke Article 42.7, France has chosen a more inter-governmental approach.

Article 42.7 is similar to NATO’s Article 5, which states that an attack against any member of NATO is considered to be an attack on all members. This was first invoked after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

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EU to Establish Rapid Reaction Force With up to 5,000 Troops. EU foreign and defence ministers on Monday agreed a security strategy meant to boost the bloc's military clout when war has returned to Europe, establishing a rapid reaction force with up to 5,000 of troops to be swiftly deployed in a crisis.
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"The threats are rising and the cost of inaction is clear," the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement, calling the document that sets out European ambitions in defence and security to be reached by 2030 a "guide to action".

Work on the strategy started in 2020, before the pandemic, a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Ukraine war. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, the EU toughened its language on Moscow.

"The EU needs to be able to protect its citizens and to contribute to international peace and security," the bloc said in a statement. "This is all the more important at a time when war has returned to Europe, following the unjustified and unprovoked Russian aggression against Ukraine, as well as of major geopolitical shifts."

Russia has described its invasion as a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine.

At the same time, the EU has made it clear it sees its efforts as complementary to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and not intended to compete with the U.S.-led military alliance as an anchor of Western defence.

Germany is ready to provide the core of the EU's new rapid reaction force in 2025, the year it is meant to become fully operational, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said in Brussels.

The force will replace the existing EU battlegroups that the bloc has had since 2007 but never used. Plans for an overhaul gained traction after European countries struggled to handle the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in August.

EU leaders are expected to sign off on the security strategy, referred to as the Strategic Compass, at a summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
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The foreign and defence ministers of the EU adopted a Strategic Compass, which gives a vision of the Union's defence development, and at Croatia's insistence, the document also makes an explicit reference to Bosnia and Herzegovina's constituent peoples.