Full of sound and fury: The harsh reality behind Europe's defence pledges

The figures don't tell the full story. There's also the problem of finding people willing to fight for their country.

- Jonathan Eyal

Another week, another summit of European leaders. The format is by now familiar: heads of state and government gather to proclaim that their continent is facing a grave security challenge, pledge to work together and then announce a new initiative to spend money on their militaries — which usually consists of touting a big figure sum, with lots of zeros. Then, the leaders go away, only to reassemble a few days later to repeat the same procedure.

Undoubtedly, Europe is facing its most acute security challenge in over half a century. US President Donald Trump seems determined to sacrifice Ukrainian territory and hand Russian President Vladimir Putin a victory Moscow is bound to use as a springboard for further European adventures. And under Mr Trump, nobody can trust the US security guarantee to defend Europe.

No European politician is alive today who can remember a worse security prospect for the continent. So, the sense of urgency and alarm which prevails at European summits is genuine. Still, much of the discussion about European defence remains unreal. The hard work has barely begun. And big mistakes are already being made.

Whenever the EU unveils a new and supposedly spectacular initiative — like the current promise to make Europe great again as a military superpower — the natural tendency of global media networks is to pay attention to what the EU's top officials say and assume that they represent the view of the entire union.

The EU is also such a gigantic and often incomprehensible bureaucratic structure that, by the time it gets around to implementing any new grand scheme, nobody bothers to check whether the outcome corresponds with the original vision and whether what the EU promised to do was accomplished.