The EU Is Practicing A Scenario Of An Attack On One Of The Countries

• 17.04.2026, 20:16

The bloc will conduct an exercise on the application of the mutual aid article.

The EU intends to work out how it would react if one of its countries were attacked.

The Politico reports this, citing a senior EU official.

In the first operation of its kind, Europe's top diplomat Kaya Kallas is to oversee a so-called "tabletop" exercise next month to find out how the bloc's mutual assistance provision, Article 42.7, will work in practice, a senior EU official said. The plan is to test the bloc's political, not military, response.

"After that we will hold exercises with [defense] ministers to see how it works in practice," the official said.

The article stipulates that if an EU member faces "armed aggression," other members are obliged to give it "assistance and support by all available means." The article does not specify whether such assistance includes a military response, and contains language referring to neutral states such as Austria and Ireland.

The modeling will take place in the EU's Political and Security Committee, which includes influential EU diplomats.

Majority of EU members are also members of NATO and therefore fall under Article 5 on mutual defense, which explicitly mentions the use of military force to assist other members.

But transatlantic tensions, in particular threats by US President Donald Trump to invade Greenland, have shaken faith in Article 5 and sparked renewed interest in EU security arrangements.

Another factor contributing to interest in Article 42.7 is the increased risk of attacks on EU states.

After Cyprus was targeted by drones launched from Lebanon in March, it was the country that expressed interest in studying how Article 42.7 would work in practice, a senior official said. Cyprus will host a summit of EU leaders next week.