Sweden, Finland ‘Remind’ EU of mutual defense clause

Non-NATO-members Sweden and Finland are counting on the European Union’s mutual defense clause in the event of a military attack, Sweden’s prime minister said Tuesday amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West.

Ahead of a summit of EU leaders in Versailles on Thursday and Friday, the two countries wrote a joint letter to “remind the other member states about the EU’s declaration of solidarity in the Lisbon Treaty,” Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told reporters.

The clause in Article 42 of the 2009 Treaty requires “other EU countries to come to the support and aid, with all possible means, of a member state under armed attack,” she said.

The exact nature of the EU’s military solidarity — which is similar to, and more recent than, NATO’s Article 5 — remains vague.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised concerns in Finland, which shares a border with Russia, and in Sweden.

The two countries are officially non-aligned, although both have been NATO partners since the mid-1990s and turned the page on their neutrality at the end of the Cold War.

Both Sweden and Finland have ruled out applying for NATO membership for now, though parliamentary discussions have begun in Helsinki.