President Sauli Niinistö handed over his report to Ursula Von Der Leyen today. It should serve as a wake-up call with 80 recommendations for EU civil society and military preparedness. A comprehensive security policy transition is at the core of the report, as Europe faces new and emerging threats. The report is rooted in the original idea behind European integration, which is to provide Europeans security and peace.
Finland’s overall security model has proven its effectiveness in the event of a crisis, and there is a lot to learn from this approach. Defence preparedness is not just the military’s and officials’ concern; it is everyone’s concern.
Quick key findings:
Any change in the EU’s security policy must start from a shared understanding of the situation.
👉 We need a robust, comprehensive whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. Europe’s stability and social cohesion depends on more coordinated actions that cut across national borders and involve every level of government, civil society, and private enterprise.
👉 The report points out that the EU´s rigid regulatory environment, and a lack of consistent emergency provisions, could undermine the speed and coherence of public-private crisis response measures. Public-private cooperation has to be done through developing stronger coordination mechanisms and information sharing and systematically integrating private sector expertise into EU-policy making.
👉 The report contains nine building blocks. Among these are some concrete proposals: a fully-fledged intelligence structure, setting joint standards and long-term targets, jointly investing in citizens’ risk education, such as cybersecurity, disaster risks, and disinformation.
The report suggests enhancing public-private partnerships and integrating the ‘preparedness-by-design’ principle in the revision of the Public procurement Directive and strengthening defence capabilities and EU-NATO cooperation, including an emergency protocol that can be activated to streamline information exchange.
Harnessing the economics of preparedness and investment is at the core of achieving these goals and one of the reasons behind the climate law was to provide some certainty for long term investment by setting targets.
We should aim to establish an Investment Guarantee Programme in the European Investment Bank, e.g. like InvestEU, asap to trigger private sector investment in Europe’s defence technological and industrial base, or disaster and crisis-resilient infrastructure through public seed money. This could be a tangible quick action that could be made in the first 100 days of the new Commission and a good signal regarding the “investment commission”.
☝️ Preparedness comes at a cost, but inaction is far more costly. It’s time to put the recommendations into action by the Member States and in the incoming Commission’s programme.
