The increase in defence spending in Europe is regarded by some as a sign of ‘preparation for war against Russia’ (Putin), ‘a sign of growing insecurity’ (Orbán), ‘incompatible with our welfare state’ (Sánchez), ‘the end of the welfare state’ (Schlein), and money ‘that enriches the powers that be’ (Conte). Russia has long been spreading propaganda suggesting that increased defence spending in Europe means more war, and whilst democratically elected governments must certainly balance their budgets, there are tragic, dramatic moments – which we would never wish to experience – when suddenly those expenses become immediately understandable even to ordinary people, even those most hostile to a common European defence, for what they really are: money invested in security.
For weeks, France and Spain have been battling wildfires on an unprecedented scale, with over 300,000 people displaced across the two countries. A catastrophe. Each European country manages the relationship between civil and military emergency response differently within its own borders. In Italy, the Civil Protection Agency is always in charge, and the army intervenes only upon request. In France, faced with ‘unprecedented’ wildfires, the government chose to militarise the emergency almost immediately, deploying over a thousand soldiers on the ground alongside gendarmerie units to carry out evacuations. Spain (the country most opposed to military spending) has a hybrid model: the Unidad Militar de Emergencias is a military corps set up specifically for disasters, so it is not a ‘belated reinforcement’ but is on the front line from the very outset. As in Japan, where the Defence Forces always intervene immediately in the event of any natural disaster, as was unfortunately the case again yesterday with the devastating earthquake in Kumamoto.
That’s not all. In recent days, the EU has intervened in the wildfire emergency in Spain and France in exactly the same way as it would in the face of an external threat, namely by mobilising equipment, personnel and resources from several Member States. In France, the EU has deployed 7 aircraft and 4 helicopters from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and Turkey, most of which belong to the joint rescEU fire-fighting fleet. In Spain, 6 aircraft have been mobilised from Greece, Italy and Turkey, along with 134 personnel and 41 vehicles from Portugal. The Copernicus satellite service is providing real-time emergency maps, and a Commission liaison officer is in Bordeaux to coordinate the aid. This follows the same pattern as collective defence: a country is in difficulty, and its allies send resources and personnel under central coordination and with shared costs. The notion, which has persisted to this day, that defence is merely about military expenditure, bombs and missiles is populist and short-sighted, because such expenditure constitutes a large-scale protection system designed not to prepare for war, but for emergencies.
