BRUSSELS, April 24. /TASS/. The European Union needs to start the Europeanization of its collective security, building "NATO 3.0" with a strong European component, European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius said at a military forum in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
"We are at the start of what we can call the Europeanization of our collective security. That is clear from the new national defense strategy of the United States, from statements by NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alexus Grynkewich who openly speaks of transferring responsibility for conventional defense to Europe," he pointed out.
"A fundamental discussion is starting on how we organize our collective defense, which is shifting from collective transatlantic defense of Europe to collective European defense of Europe - a discussion on a European Defense Union and Article 42.7 (of the Treaty on European Union - TASS)," Kubilius noted, adding that it was about "NATO 3.0" with a stronger European component.
"An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, an attack against the entire European Union. <...> We have a collective security and collective defense doctrine. We have NATO’s Article 5 and we have the Treaty on European Union’s Article 42.7," he added.
Article 42.7, which was included in the Treaty on European Union in 2009, says that "if a member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other member states shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power." For 15 years, the article was seen as purely theoretical because the EU’s collective security was NATO’s responsibility.