Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1534889
10 OPINION maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 APRIL 2025 UNDOUBTEDLY, not a single EU citizen would be eager to turn into a warmonger, but af- ter Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many are those who think it is not enough to wave the olive branch. This is especially more so when dip- lomatic efforts to end the wars raging in different parts of the globe have hardly produced any tangible results. The EU is realising that it may have to adjust the way it mobi- lises for war, adjust the way it produces military equipment and the manner by which it re- cruits and trains personnel. As a consequence, it is grappling with the question of how to mo- bilise millions of people to be thrown into a meatgrinder of a potential war. Unfortunately, this is where Russia has put the EU. And this is where conscription and neutrality come in. The debate over compulsory military service has resurfaced across Europe, with many coun- tries reconsidering whether conscription could bolster their national security. As defence budgets shrink, the readiness and ability of European militar- ies to respond even to tradition- al threats is now being called into question. For many years, European armed forces have operated on the assumption that any future conflicts would depend signifi- cantly on advanced technology. However, the Russian threat of territorial invasion towards the European mainland has certain- ly made more countries consid- er new paths to strengthening military capability, which can include some form of conscrip- tion or national service. Yet, how lawful is military conscription? Under international law, con- scription is viewed as an exer- cise of a state's sovereignty, and no provisions of international law prohibit it. On the face of it, therefore, should the Maltese government introduce compul- sory military service, this would be lawful. However, conscription re- mains controversial for a range of reasons, including conscien- tious objection to military en- gagements on religious or phil- osophical grounds, or political objection, for example, because of an unpopular war. In the EU, conscripts should enjoy the same rights and fun- damental freedoms, in particu- lar those conferred by the Eu- ropean Convention on Human Rights, and enjoy the same legal protection as ordinary citizens. This does not preclude the pos- sibility of states providing for restrictions on the exercise of these freedoms if these are jus- tified according to the specific circumstances or for maintain- ing military discipline, but they must be in strict respect of the Convention. Among those who have rein- stated mandatory service in re- cent years are Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Norway never suspended con- scription. Even if conscription would help address issues with mil- itary recruitment, in many countries it could be socially and politically controversial to the point that it reinforces polarisation, leads to backlash or social/political unrest, and undermines the wider security benefits that could be gained from it. And then there is the neutral- ity or non-alignment issue to complicate matters further. EU member states that are neutral or militarily non- aligned, or that have an opt-out from common defence, are of- ten overlooked in discussions about European defence. The existence of these special status states not only creates uncer- tainty about the EU's ambitions to become a fully-fledged de- fence union but also calls into question the functionality of the mutual defence clause, Arti- cle 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty of 2009, in the long run. Article 42.7 reads thus: "If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its terri- tory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obli- gation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power, by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This shall not preju- dice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States. Commitments and cooper- ation in this area shall be con- sistent with commitments un- der the North Atlantic Treaty The EU at war: Possible scenarios for Malta Mark Said is a veteran lawyer Mark Said EU member states that are neutral or militarily non-aligned are often overlooked in discussions about European defence