PASOK MEP Nikolas Farantouris called today from Brussels for the prime minister to inform his counterparts at the next European Council summit on 13 November of the possibility of activating the mutual assistance clause.
“The prime minister must inform EU partners now that if Turkey follows through on its threats by obstructing or attacking the project, Greece will seek to activate the mutual assistance clause under Article 42(7) of the EU Treaty,” the PASOK MEP said, adding that “in such a case, the other member states would be obliged to provide assistance by every means: military, financial, operational and digital”.
Article 42(7) of the EU Treaty
Article 42(7) of the EU Treaty establishes an explicit legal and political commitment to collective security among European states:
“If a member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other member states shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power.”
The wording obliges member states to assist the member under attack. Assistance may be military, logistical, financial, administrative or digital.
The clause has been activated only once, by France, following the terrorist attacks in Paris on 17 November 2015.
France chose Article 42(7) at the time instead of the “solidarity clause” (Article 222 of the TFEU).
Article 42(7) operates bilaterally between member states, bypassing the time-consuming or complex bureaucratic procedures of the EU’s formal institutions. As the then French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, the move was first and foremost a political act of European solidarity. All EU member states expressed their political solidarity. Countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom took on supporting roles or deployed forces on peacekeeping missions in Africa (for example, in Mali and the Central African Republic). This allowed France to free up its own troops and redeploy them to operations against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, as well as to domestic security duties. Intelligence cooperation and counterterrorism efforts within the EU were also strengthened directly.
Nikolas Farantouris stressed that the Greek prime minister should raise the issue with our partners and counterparts at the next informal European Council meeting on 13 November:
“He should warn his counterparts that Greece will activate Article 42(7) if Turkey militarily obstructs the implementation of a European project, threatens our country’s interests and rights, and violates them. He must warn them that activation of Article 42(7) will now be inevitable. And he must do so now.”