The European Union has long stood at the forefront of the fight against anti-personnel landmines.
Its early and active support for the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty reflected a shared European belief: that these weapons are inherently inhumane, fundamentally indiscriminate, and have no place in modern warfare. This was a principled stance rooted in the devastating humanitarian consequences of landmine use.
But a dangerous new precedent has emerged as five EU member states —Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland — have moved to withdraw from the Mine Ban Treaty, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a rapidly deteriorating security environment. This puts the EU under moral pressure to act.
Anti-personnel landmines do not distinguish between a soldier and a child. Once laid, landmines remain active for years, even decades, long after hostilities have ended. They lay still and maim a civilians trying to return to normal life, to rebuild, to farm their land.
According to the Landmine Monitor, up to 85% of victims are civilians and nearly 40% are children. These are not accidents. They are the predictable outcomes of the way these weapons are triggered.
Even so-called “smart” mines — those with self-destruct or self-deactivation features — have repeatedly failed to prove that landmines could, one day, be a good weapon of choice. The International Committee of the Red Cross and independent military experts have confirmed that landmines remain unpredictable, uncontrollable and inherently dangerous.
The rationale behind the 1997 treaty was evidence-based. The military utility of landmines is severely limited, while the humanitarian cost is vast and enduring. This calculus remains the same. What has changed, however, is that some states have revised their conclusions under new military pressure, while other have endorsed this change through their silence.
A landmine shift with no logic
Finland and Latvia have already begun parliamentary procedures to withdraw from the treaty. Poland has floated the idea of producing 1 million new landmines and Finnish technology conglomerate Insta has said it is ready to produce them. The EU’s reaction has been muted at best, silent at worst.
Yes, Europe is facing growing security threats. The Russian aggression in Ukraine has revived conventional warfare on the continent and triggered deep anxieties about border protection and deterrence. But the idea that returning to banned, indiscriminate weapons will deliver safety is dangerously mistaken.
As outlined by international humanitarian law, military necessity cannot justify methods that cause disproportionate harm to civilians. Landmines are a textbook example.
Their use violates the very principles the EU claims to uphold: distinction, proportionality and precaution in warfare. Furthermore, these developments risk unravelling a legal framework that took decades to build.
If EU member states begin walking away from treaties that enshrine humanitarian norms, we must fear what comes next. The implications reach far beyond the battlefield; they strike at the heart of multilateralism and the international rules-based order that the EU claims to defend.
The EU and its member states have invested over €800 million into humanitarian mine action between 2017 and 2022, making Europe the second-largest donor globally, according to the Landmine Monitor. In countries across Africa, Southeast Asia and the Balkans, EU funding has cleared minefields, restored farmland and supported thousands of survivors who lost limbs, family members or livelihoods to these insidious weapons.
Upholding EU humanitarian responsibilities
The withdrawal of member states from the Mine Ban Treaty demands a clear and principled response from the EU. Upholding the treaty is essential to the EU’s credibility in promoting civilian protection, international law and a rules-based global order.
The threat to European security is real but the response cannot involve returning to weapons that were banned because they are indiscriminate killers of civilians.
Anti-personnel mines offer questionable military advantage that cannot be measured against the lasting harm they do to civilian populations.
The EU must support its member states in strengthening their security, but not at the expense of the very norms that define European values. Reintroducing landmines would not make Europe safer, it would make it morally weaker and legally compromised.
The EU and its member states must reaffirm their full commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty, speak out clearly against any withdrawals and engage diplomatically to prevent further erosion of this critical international agreement.
The moral authority the EU built over decades could be wasted in months. If the EU won’t defend the standards it helped create, who will?
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