European Union: Let’s prepare roads and bridges for war

The European Union first addressed the shortcomings of Europe’s “military mobility” in 2018, but the €6 billion fund designed for this purpose in the EU budget for 2021-27 was brutally cut in 2020 by the leaders of the 27 EU countries to just one and a half billion. “The war was completely beyond the horizon of thinking then. The war in Ukraine changed everything – he explained on Thursday [10.11.2022] EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Closer to NATO

The European Commission now intends to seek additional money to support “dual-use” infrastructure projects, i.e. roads and bridges suitable for transporting heavy military equipment. The goal is, among others subsidizing roads from cohesion funds that would take into account the requirements of “military mobility”. This would mean that also national co-financing for EU investments would have to fit into possible military requirements.

– All this means even closer cooperation between the EU and NATO. After all, there are no only military roads, no only military railways, no only military bridges. It is crucial for our defense to quickly adapt the EU infrastructure to the rapid transfer of troops and equipment mainly from the west to the east – Borrell explained.

It is not only about preparations – or EU support for NATO in such preparations – in the event of an attack by Russia on EU countries, but also about the redeployment of aid to Ukraine. Already now, heavy military equipment has to bypass some communication routes, e.g. in Germany. The French, who are responsible for the new NATO battlegroup in Romania, have faced a similar problem in recent weeks. President Emmanuel Macron promised to move Leclerc tanks there in mid-October. Although Paris wanted to use this announcement to demonstrate its speed of troop deployment, according to the daily Le Monde, it has so far managed to send only about ten armored fighting vehicles by land, and transports with tanks have not been allowed to transit on German roads due to with tonnage restrictions. They will therefore be transported to Romania by rail, which in this case means a significant extension of transport.

The European Commission now intends to carry out a new analysis of the shortcomings of “military mobility” in the EU and also support the logistical fuel network, because – as Borrell explained – shortcomings in this matter can also hinder the rapid redeployment of troops. – Another task is to simplify procedures. Now it takes five days to obtain documents for the transfer of military capabilities from country to country. These are the rules. This can be shortened even by digitization – said Borrell.

Money for Jason

This month, the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, associated with the hub for the transfer of aid to Ukraine, signed an agreement with the European Commission for 16.5 million co-financing for the reconstruction of the taxi and runways, which was supported by the analyzes of NATO services attached to the application. This is part of the EUR 340 million that, as agreed in Brussels last spring, is to be allocated to mainly small projects within the framework of “military mobility”, primarily for Central Europe. These investments also include strengthening rail links from the port of Antwerp to Germany so that longer trains can travel eastwards, as well as upgrading a total of two airports in Poland and strengthening transport links to the Tapa military base in Estonia. In addition, EUR 5 million is to be spent on increasing the military capacity on the Latvian section of Rail Baltica.

– For the second call for proposals, we will use the flexibility of the EU budget to support as many projects as possible, which is needed given the current geopolitical situation. We received 63 project submissions requesting funding of over EUR 1 billion. We will announce which projects have been selected in December 2022, said Adina Valean, Commissioner for Transport, today. She announced the search for additional funds as part of the mid-term review of the current EU seven-year budget, which is planned for next year.

Strengthen cyber defense

The European Commission also intends to support EU coordination on cyber defense issues. – We must have the ability not only to defend cyber, but also to attack – argued today Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market, although for the time being it would be extremely difficult for EU institutions to enter this domain left to individual European countries. Brussels urges EU countries to adopt and apply the EU guidelines developed three years ago on the security of 5G technology providers (currently it is mainly about the controversy surrounding China). “It’s about Germany, but not only,” said Margrethe Vestager, deputy head of the Commission.