Bart MJ Szewczyk

The European Union has just equipped itself with the largest pool of funds for defense and technology in its history. The Security Action for Europe, or SAFE, regulation, which entered into force in May, authorizes the European Commission to raise up to 150 billion euros on capital markets — leveraging the EU’s triple‑A credit rating — and lend the proceeds to member states for joint arms purchases.

One month into Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, European countries have stirred into action on defense. As large-scale war returns to the continent after a 77-year absence, governments are raising military spending, boosting readiness, and sending units to guard NATO's eastern frontier. But all this action will lack a clear sense of direction and strategy as long as governments from Paris to Berlin remain stuck in their naive myths of the European Union as a military power.