This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org. License [2]: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/Int'l. ------------------------ The EU is wrong to arm Ukraine. Here’s why By: [] Date: 2022-04 Four days after Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that “for the first time ever”, the EU would “finance the purchase and delivery of weapons… to a country that is under attack”. A few days earlier, she had declared the EU to be “one union, one alliance” with NATO. Unlike NATO, the EU is not a military alliance. Yet, from the outset of this war, it has been more concerned with militarism than diplomacy. This was not unexpected. The Lisbon Treaty provided the legal underpinning for the EU to develop a common security and defence policy. Between 2014 and 2020, some €25.6bn* of the EU’s public money was spent beefing up its military capacity. The 2021-27 budget established a European Defence Fund (EDF) of nearly €8bn, modelled on two precursor programmes, which for the first time allocated EU funding to the research and development of innovative military wares, including highly controversial arms that rely on artificial intelligence or automated systems. The EDF is but one aspect of a much broader defence budget. EU spending is indicative of how it identifies as a political project and where its priorities lie. Over the previous decade, political and social problems have increasingly been addressed militarily. The removal of humanitarian missions from the Mediterranean, replaced by high-tech surveillance drones and leading to 20,000 drownings since 2013, is just one example. In choosing to fund militarism, Europe has driven an arms race and prepared the groundwork for war. Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now EC vice president and high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Josep Borrell said after the Russian invasion: “Another taboo has fallen… that the European Union was not providing arms in a war.” Borrell confirmed that lethal weapons would be sent to the war zone, funded by the EU’s Peace Facility. War, it would seem, is indeed peace, as George Orwell proclaimed in ‘1984’. The EU’s actions are not only hugely irresponsible, but also show a lack of creative thinking. Is this honestly the best the EU can do in a moment of crisis? To channel €500m in lethal weaponry to a country with 15 nuclear reactors, where conscripted citizens must fight by any and all means at their disposal, where children are preparing molotov cocktails, and where the opposing side has put its nuclear deterrent forces on high alert? Inviting Ukraine’s military to submit an arms wishlist will only fan the flames of war. Non-violent resistance Calls from the Ukrainian government and its people for arms are understandable and difficult to ignore. But ultimately, arms only ever prolong and aggravate conflict. Ukraine has a strong precedent of non-violent resistance, including the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Maidan Revolution of 2013-14, and there are already acts of non-violent, civilian resistance taking place across the country in response to the invasion. These acts must be recognised and supported by the EU, which thus far has primarily focused its attention on militarised defence. History has shown time and again that pouring arms into situations of conflict does not bring about stability and does not necessarily contribute to effective resistance. In 2017, the US sent European-manufactured arms to Iraq to fight ISIS, only for those same arms to end up in the hands of IS fighters in the battle of Mosul. Arms supplied by a German company to the Mexican federal police fell into the hands of municipal police and an organised crime gang in Guerrero State and were used in the massacre of six people and the forced disappearance of 43 students in a case known as Ayotzinapa. Following the disastrous withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, significant quantities of high-tech US military wares were seized by the Taliban, including military helicopters, planes, and other equipment from the US war chest. [END] [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/the-eu-is-wrong-to-arm-ukraine-heres-why/ [2] url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ OpenDemocracy via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/