Safeguarding neutrality and indifference: the decision to opt out of EU military cooperation

Malta’s position to opt out of the EU’s defence and military cooperation project, PESCO, remains unchanged despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Ian Borg defends this position, insisting there is no reason to change the status quo.

He insists the Maltese people’s voice was the loudest on Malta’s neutrality, adding this did not stop the country from saying what was right and wrong on the international stage.

PESCO is not an army or military alliance but when it was set up in December 2017, Malta and Denmark had been the only member states to opt out.

Austria, Ireland, Finland and Sweden, the other four neutral or non-aligned EU countries had also joined.

Then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said Malta will adopt a wait and see attitude to understand how PESCO evolves and determine whether it contradicts the country’s neutrality. However, he had also said that he did not foresee any particular neutrality-related issue.

The stand enjoyed support from then Opposition leader Adrian Delia, although former PN leader Simon Busuttil had argued in favour of Malta’s participation.

Now, with Denmark voting in a referendum to join the project, Malta will be the only member state not participating.

The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) is the part of the EU’s security and defence policy in which 25 of the 27 national armed forces pursue structural integration.

Projects vary from the joint development of military hardware to the pooling of resources to purchase defence equipment.

Jean Claude Cachia, a senior lecturer at the University of Malta’s Institute for European Studies, believes that a debate surrounding PESCO should also be part of a wider debate on the status and role of Malta’s neutrality.

“Whilst Malta has participated in numerous peace keeping programmes, its foreign policy is based on neutrality. With the conflict in Ukraine, two neutral countries Sweden and Finland, decided to apply to join NATO, ditching decades – in Sweden’s case centuries – of neutrality,” Cachia says.

He observes that the Nordic countries’ decision was primarily done due the threat which Russia poses to the region. But while acknowledging that Malta does not face a similar threat, he notes that even if it remains out of PESCO, it can still be directly affected by the conflict due to the Mutual Defence Clauses of the European Union.

Cachia points out that Articles 42.7 of the Treaty of the European Union and Article 222 of Treaty on the Functioning of the EU oblige states to “show solidarity to other EU member states in case of aggression”.

The clauses were used by Muscat to justify the fact that Malta will not be missing out on any security guarantees by remaining out of PESCO but it does raise the question as to why Malta should deprive itself of military cooperation when it is obliged to show solidarity if another EU country suffers aggression.

A perception of indifference

For retired colonel David Attard, a former deputy commander of the Armed Forces of Malta, it is “not in Malta’s best security and defence interests to opt out of PESCO”.

PESCO deepens defence and security cooperation between EU member states, he says, adding it allows “able and willing EU member states to, on a voluntary basis, jointly develop defence capabilities, invest in shared projects, and enhance the operational readiness and contribution of their armed forces to the wider defence and security needs of the individual member states and the EU itself”.

Attard says that not all the collaborative projects undertaken under this initiative may be of direct relevance to Malta and to its armed forces but he argues that politically Malta’s non-participation “may be perceived as indifference”.

He says that the the EU has long felt the need for common capability development to support the Common Security and Defence Policy operations and missions.

“The invasion of Ukraine has further highlighted the need to strengthen Europe’s security and defence and to help reach the level of ambition the EU expressed in its Global Strategy,” Attard says, adding that Europe cannot remain totally dependent on the USA for its defence and security needs.

He notes that the EU respects the fact that participation in PESCO is without prejudice to the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain EU member states such as Malta. “There is no pressure on our country to join this initiative,” Attard says, insisting that any such decision rests with the Maltese government and what it considers to be the best interest of the country.