- In total right now there are 16 missions, between civilians and the military, and more than 4,000 troops deployed.

Members of the Ukrainian army stand guard at a checkpoint near Kyiv.

Bosnia, Kosovo, Palestine, Mali, or Iraq: what could the EU mission to train the Ukrainian army look like?

"The coming weeks and months are going to be challenging. First for the Ukrainians themselves, who are paying with their lives, but also for the rest of Europe." This message from Josep Borrell anticipates the future. For the High Representative of the EU, "freedom, democracy and global security" are at stake in Ukraine, and for this reason, he is in favor of the Union sending a mission to train the Ukrainian army. The conflict will be long and Borrell sees it "reasonable" that the 27 agree on this step, one more in the deployment of all the tools available to the community bloc to support Kyiv. But what would be the keys to this decision?

Defense competencies fall fundamentally to the Member States, but the EU has the umbrella of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). In the Treaties, the Union achieves a series of initiatives: humanitarian and rescue tasks; conflict prevention and peacekeeping tasks; tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including pacification; joint disarmament joint operations; military advice and assistance tasks and military assistance; post-conflict stabilization tasks. In this sense, a key date for the development of these plans was the 1990s with the Balkan war. Since then the missions have been repeated in different parts of the planet.

In total right now there are 16 missions, between civilians and the military, and more than 4,000 troops deployed, according to data from the European External Action Service:

EU military and civilian missions.

What would the training mission be like?

The idea comes from the High Representative, who sees this step as necessary in the face of a conflict that all the actors see will drag on over time. In the absence of knowing more details, it is clear that it will not occur in Ukraine, but in some bordering countries (several of them members of the EU). Decisions to establish and launch missions and operations require the approval of all Member States through a Council decision. In addition, the planning process is governed by crisis management procedures.

In the absence of a European army, most of the means and personnel necessary for military operations, as well as civilian missions, are provided by the Member States. Civilian missions are financed through the CFSP budget and the common costs of military operations cannot be financed by the EU budget and the Member States through the so-called Athena mechanism, created in 2004.

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Are these missions already given?

Yes. For example in Somalia, between 2010 and 2020, some 203 European soldiers trained in the Somali National Army. Training functions are also given from the EU Office in Palestine, although the focus is more on advisory work at the institutional level. Also, since 2013 there is a training mission in Mali, although the forces of some Member States have been leaving the country due to instability. In total, there were times when 745 troops were reached.

If you look at the whole picture, most of the missions deployed by the EU are advisory and support missions, for example on borders, such as the one in Libya. In Iraq, to ​​give another example, the EU is working to prepare its civilian security forces both to fight terrorism and to carry out other police tasks. In Kosovo, the deployment focuses on consolidating the rule of law in the country, and in Georgia, what is being done is monitoring to verify the absence of Russian forces in the Georgian border areas with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which were the key points of the war with Russia in 2008.

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Is there already existing collaboration with Ukraine?

Yes. Cooperation of this type with Ukraine is an issue that was already opened in 2021 but has taken on special importance for the EU since the beginning of the Russian invasion. A reference at the time could have been the Althea Mission, which is set up in Bosnia and Herzegovina to supervise that the agreements signed in Dayton are upheld. Some 600 troops are deployed there. On the other hand, Borrell has clarified that any type of support of this nature would not be given to Ukrainian territory. With Kyiv, there has also been permanent work since 2014 to train and modernize its police forces.

On paper, the 27 agree on the need for a "stronger and more capable EU in the field of security and defense". And in this line, the leaders of the European institutions spoke. "We must not only invest more but certainly spend and invest more, together. With options such as joint markets, strengthen the European industrial and technological base in this field. Especially considering the role of SMEs", commented the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, following Borrell's own argument. For the High Representative, the key is to "increase military spending in a coordinated manner, spending more and better, together."

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