Rearmament of NATO being held back by an unlikely foe – geese

The rearmament of NATO is being undermined by EU rules on emissions and the welfare of seals and geese, according to a leaked Dutch report.

Plans to station F-35s at Lelystad airport have faced legal challenges because of noise and disruption to nearby breeding grounds for geese. Picture: AFP.

The rearmament of NATO is being undermined by EU rules on emissions and the welfare of seals and geese, according to a leaked Dutch report.

European members of the alliance are under pressure from US President Donald Trump to increase military spending and are seeking to bolster defences against Russia. A conference in The Hague next week will set higher spending targets.

However, EU red tape is seen as strangling operational plans to expand barracks and hold exercises, a report by the TNO, a Dutch government scientific advisory body, has said.

Many Cold War-era military bases in The Netherlands and beyond are close to nature reserves, putting their expansion in breach of environment certificates and in some cases preventing fighter jet pilots from training there.

The report, leaked to Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf, noted that plans to station F-35s at Lelystad airport faced environmental protests and legal challenges because of noise and disruption to nearby breeding grounds for geese.

North Sea naval exercises have been constrained because of concerns about the impact on marine wildlife, especially seals, of underwater explosions.

The report said finding ways to bypass the rules was “an operational necessity and a strategic and political priority”. It claimed they limited “national and allied defence capacity and thus affect the collective defence of Dutch and NATO territory”.

“If there is less space to train and house people, if equipment maintenance can no longer be carried out, or if new equipment cannot be deployed sufficiently, this has a direct impact on the personnel and equipment readiness of the armed forces,” the report said.

Recent judicial rulings on emissions in The Netherlands are seen by the TNO as limiting permits for equipment that runs on fossil fuels.

EU climate change legislation may also affect future fighting ability by restricting the mining of metals critical to military hardware.

Jakub Jaworowski, the Polish minister responsible for defence procurement, said Europe’s adversaries such as Russia, or rivals like China, were not constrained in the same way. “It is a real dilemma,” he said.

“You have the defence of Europe on one side, and on the other, legitimate environmental objectives. We need to defend Europe.

“Our adversaries do not care much for the environment.”

NATO military planners have previously complained that EU red tape, particularly Customs forms, have stood in the way of military manoeuvres, cross-border convoys and vital ammunition shipments to Ukraine. Each item of equipment requires sheaves of paperwork and authorisation can take months.

This month, 11 countries, including Germany, signed a letter demanding the European Commission “address the legal obstacles for operational readiness of our armed forces and defence organisations, in addition to addressing legal obstacles to the defence industry”.

It said “some EU legislation forms a direct obstacle to armed forces fulfilling their tasks”.

Highlighting clauses in the EU treaty to stop legislation from preventing “armed forces carrying out necessary activities to become operationally ready”, the letter concluded: “Right now, it does.”

The Times