Going beyond the traditional meaning of security, in order to discuss the budget plan on defense sector at a European level

Translated by Alessandra Fumagalli 

On December, 20 2024, the Magdeburg attack in Germany recalls fears and memories of similar episodes that occurred in some European main cities that spreaded the terror during the years. A few hours after the hypothetical threat to the European security, on December, 21 2024, in the Finnish Lappony the Summit North-South was taking place, where the EU High Representative of Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas and the Presidents Giorgia Meloni, the Greek Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Swedish Ulf Kristersson, together with the Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo met to discuss about the security and defense.

For the first time, north countries, symbolically represented by the Swedish Prime Minister, showed an open-minded approach towards the defense and security issues, despite their reputation of frugal countries which they have been given: the will to invest in new equipments and resources that could guarantee an higher efficacy in terms of security and defense emerges, however paying attention not to load the national public expenses of each country. In order to realise this goal, lots of meetings have been scheduled for the following months, which will probably start in Greece, in order to highlight the South of Europe, represented by the Greek leader himself.

The words pronounced by the President Giorgia Meloni were a stimulus to develop an efficient border’s protection system, given by the Russian or criminal organizations threats and they also represented a prompt to be ready to face any kind of threats.

However, the European Union has recently been threatened by some events: two governments, which represent the heart of the European Union and its economy, have fallen. On one hand, for the first time since De Gaulle, the French Parliament voted the mistrust towards the Prime Minister Michel Barnier, due to some issues regarding the budget law of 2025: the current situation isn’t easy, since France is experiencing the worst budget disbalance with a deficit of 6.2% of the GDP, and the Constitution is hindering the elections until mid 2025. On the other hand, the German Chancellor Olaf Sholz received the mistrust by the Bundestag, after having fired his Financial Minister and Leader of the Liberal Party, Christian Lindner: the SDP, the Greens and the FDP divided and anticipated elections in February 2025 have been settled.

The political vacuum in Paris and Berlin represents a difficulty, not only economically and tradelly speaking, but also geopolitically and security. The Russian threat and the hypothetical separation between United States and NATO - as preannounced by Donald Trump, the new US-President - gives Europe no other choices but to invest in the military and safety sector, as already said in the Summit. However, it is necessary to control hypothetical populists and nationalists movements, that can explode internally and reinvigorate in a chaotic and uncertainty environment, as the one that characterized these two countries: such ideologies could favor an higher distrust towards the European institutions or increase the fright, making the efforts to maintain Europe cohesive more difficult.

Moreover, it is crucial that the meaning of security is spreaded in all its meanings, in order to be “prepared for any episodes” as desired by the leaders: what occurred in the Romanian elections is a proof. Following the declassification of some documents by the Romanian intelligence services, it has been proven that the candidate Calin Georgescu could have won the elections thanks to the manipulation managed by the TikTok foreign algorithms It is a structured escamotage to promote the vision of his contents, at the expense of the opponents, whose views have been limited. In the face of such a computer threat towards national security, the Romanian Constitutional Court had decided to cancel the results of the first turn of the elections and call the elections.

Looking at the latest news of another accident regarding some submarines cables in the Baltic Sea, which represents an attack to the critical infrastructures, it is easy to deduce that there are several security problems, dealing not only with traditional security, such as computer, sanitary, environmental, which require the European Union and its leaders to maintain updated and to intervene as quick as possible to expect, monitor and contrast them with the correct means and appropriate strategies.

Paying attention to all the movements and the internal episodes is as important as cautious, in order to observe the hypothetical threat coming from the outside: in a more virtual and hybrid context, the distinction between internal-external can, indeed, fail, highlighting the necessity to have a transversal, capillary and 360 degrees hurry.

Considering the evolution of the meaning of security, coming from a state-centric approach, that focus on the individuals and their rights, the necessity to adapt to the new acception of the word and to face the current challenges at any level of security aiming at safeguarding citizens and people and, as a consequence, to maintain the European Union tighter, both internally and externally.

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