Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine endangers the security of the EU. With war on the horizon, the United States deeply divided over its continued support for Ukraine, and dangerous tensions rising in the Middle East and many other regions, it is time for Europe to take its security into its own hands to protect its citizens and deter to his adversaries.
We have already begun to reverse the policy of “peace dividends” – the approach of reducing defense spending and associated industrial production – that has long prevailed after the end of the Cold War. Since 2022, this change in mentality has materialized with the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO, the entry of Denmark into European defense cooperation and the decisions of EU member states to invest massively in defense and support Ukraine militarily with 28 billion euros since the start of the war and another 21 billion announced for 2024. The EU is using instruments such as the European Peace Fund in an innovative way to finance the transfer of weapons to Ukraine and we have just agree to add 5,000 million euros to this fund. We have also mobilized the EU budget in an unprecedented way to support joint procurement and investment in ammunition production.
But we need to do much more and move from emergency mode to a long-term structural approach. We must produce and invest more in defense, faster and together as Europeans. Building a credible Defense Union will be a major European project for the next decade.
We are not talking about creating a European army. What we need – and what we want to achieve in the coming years – is closer cooperation between our national armies and a stronger defense industry in Europe. This will also help build an effective European pillar in NATO. We must build a defense Europe that allows us to act alongside our allies where possible, but also independently when necessary.
In the current geopolitical context, we have no choice: we have to be “defense ready.” Not because the EU should wage war, but, on the contrary, to deter our potential aggressors with the certainty that our industry will be prepared to sustain efforts in the long term. That is the meaning of the European Defense Industrial Strategy that we presented on March 5 and that the heads of state and government of the EU will debate this week.
The availability of defense equipment, in a timely manner, has become a critical security problem. In the last two years, 78% of defense equipment purchased by EU member states was purchased outside the EU. As in so many other areas (raw materials, clean technologies), in a world of growing geopolitical tensions we must reduce excessive dependencies on Europe. We should not assume that foreign defense manufacturers will always be willing to sell us equipment when, at the price and at the pace we need.
We need to increase Europe’s industrial production capacities, replenish our member states’ stocks, structure resilient European defense industrial ecosystems and secure their supply chains across Europe.
We have already done it in the case of ammunition: the European production system can today produce more than one million artillery ammunition per year and, with the support of the new law to Support Ammunition Production (ASAP), we will reach a production capacity of two million in 2025.
However, we must also encompass the broader picture of defense capabilities. We have to invest in European cyber and air defense capabilities, monitor threats from space, better protect our maritime zones: the domains that none of our member states can manage to secure alone. But all this presupposes the availability of European defense equipment.
Europe needs a defense industrial policy that supports its security strategy for now and the future, without having to hold our breath every four years waiting for the results of the elections between our allies. With urgency and concentration. Beyond slogans and short-term actions, we need to substantially increase our collective long-term investment. No taboos.
We therefore need to improve our European defense industry’s access to financing from private and public sources. The European Investment Bank (EIB) can be a key driver in this regard, if it adapts its lending policies accordingly.
Secondly, we need a global collective investment plan. We were able to react quickly and decisively as Europeans to the existential crisis of Covid, jointly mobilizing €750 billion for Europe’s recovery and resilience. At a time when our own security is threatened, we need a long-term, predictable and credible financing plan to invest in our defense capabilities and our defense industry, including, if necessary, a common borrowing, as you have proposed several heads of state and government.
One thing is for sure. As with all other major challenges – climate change, pandemics, migration, energy… – relying solely on national solutions cannot be enough. It is time to think, invest and act like Europeans. We trust that EU member states will show political will and agree to provide the necessary resources to take the bold leap forward that is needed to take the reins of our own defense industry destiny.
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Josep Borrell Fontelles. High representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and vice president of the European Commission.
Thierry Breton. Internal Market Commissioner responsible for the European defense industry.
