The European Union is preparing its first-ever exercise based on a scenario in which a Member State invokes the treaty-based mutual assistance clause to seek support from other countries in the event of a threat, including aggression from Russia, the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat reported in its Saturday edition.
The scenario of the drills assumes that one of the Member States becomes the target of a large-scale hybrid attack. This is a way to prepare for potential aggression from Russia. The exercise is scheduled for early May – at a time when U.S. engagement in NATO is weakening – the largest Finnish newspaper stressed.
The aim is to activate Article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union, not Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Under the EU clause, if a Member State becomes the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other states are obliged to provide aid and assistance by all the means in their power – without affecting the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain countries.
So far, this procedure has been triggered only once, following the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.
The exercise will not be military in nature but will take place at the ministerial level, including ministries of foreign affairs and defence. It is being prepared by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas.
According to Helsingin Sanomat sources, the exercise is considered “politically sensitive”, as the EU does not want to send a signal that it is capable of defending itself without the involvement of the United States or outside the NATO framework. Nevertheless, the need to define the scope of the EU’s mutual assistance clause has increased due to growing distrust toward the U.S. administration under Donald Trump. At the beginning of this year, the EU feared that the United States might take control of the autonomous territory of Greenland, formally belonging to Denmark, including through the use of military force – the Helsinki-based newspaper recalled.
Former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, who prepared a report for the EU in 2024 on strengthening civil and defence preparedness, repeatedly emphasized during his presidency the strong treaty obligation of EU states to assist another country (interpreted by some as even stronger than NATO’s Article 5). He also supported the development of a common EU defence structure that could become “a European pillar of the North Atlantic Alliance”.
Niinistö served as head of state from 2012 to 2024, and toward the end of his second term, in 2023, in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he decided to bring Finland into NATO.