MEPs challenge ‘hybrid war’ label as Black Sea attacks spur calls for protection

MEPs from several political groups challenged the description of the Black Sea crisis as a “hybrid war” during a debate with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Tuesday. They called for more European funding to protect EU territory, according to Dutch news agency ANP. Their remarks were calls from individual lawmakers, not an agreed position of the European Parliament. [1] [3]

ANP reported that a lawmaker from the centre-right European People’s Party questioned how long the term would continue to be used. A Green MEP argued that there was nothing hybrid about a ship on fire. ANP did not name either speaker. [1]

Kallas told Parliament that drones suspected to be Russian had carried out six attacks in ten days in the Black Sea. Drone strikes hit two cargo ships off Bulgaria on 13 October, sinking one of them. The ships flew the flags of Guinea-Bissau and Malta, rather than Bulgaria; Bulgarian officials stopped short of explicitly accusing Russia of those strikes, Reuters reported. Kallas herself still used the term “hybrid attacks” for Russian activities elsewhere in Europe. [2] [6]

The EPP group has called for an EU naval operation to protect shipping and counter aerial threats near Bulgaria and Romania, as well as defence funding in a future EU budget. Neither proposal has been agreed. A vote on a Black Sea resolution was scheduled for 22 October. [4] [3]