Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine endangers the security of the EU. With war on the horizon, and 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 care of its security to protect citizens and deter adversaries.
We have already begun to reverse the policy of “peace dividends” – the approach of reducing defense spending and associated industrial production – that has prevailed for a long time since the end of the Cold War. Since 2022, this change in mindset has materialized with the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO, Denmark’s entry into European defense cooperation, and decisions by EU member states to invest massively in defense and supporting 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 arms to Ukraine and agreed to add 5 billion 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 must do much more and move from emergency mode to a long-term structural approach. We must produce and invest more in defence, 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 with our allies when possible, but also independently when necessary.
In the current geopolitical context, we have no other choice: we must be “prepared for defense”. Not because the EU has to go to war but, on the contrary, to deter our potential aggressors with the certainty that our industry will be ready to sustain the efforts in the long term. This is the meaning of the European defense industrial strategy that we presented on March 5 and that the EU heads of state and government will debate this same week.
The availability of defense equipment, in time and form, has become a critical security issue. 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 our excessive dependence on Europe. We must not take for granted that foreign defense equipment manufacturers will always be willing to sell us equipment at the time, at the price and at the rate we need.
We must increase Europe’s industrial production capabilities, replenish the stockpiles of our member states, build resilient European defense industrial ecosystems and secure supply chains across Europe.
We have already done it in the case of munitions: the European production system can today produce more than a million artillery munitions a year and, with the support of the new law on support for the production of munitions ( ASAP), we will achieve a production capacity of 2 million by 2025.
However, we must also include the broader picture of defense capabilities. We must invest in European cyber and anti-air defense capabilities, monitor threats from space, better protect our maritime zones – domains that none of our member states can secure alone. But all this presupposes the availability of European defense equipment.
Europe needs an industrial defense policy that supports its security strategy for now and for the future, without having to hold our breath every four years waiting for the results of elections among 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 funding 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.
Second, we need a global collective investment plan. We were able to react quickly and decisively as Europeans to the existential crisis of covid by jointly mobilizing 750,000 million euros for the recovery and resilience of Europe. At a time when our own security is under threat, we need a long-term, predictable and credible financing plan to invest in our defense capabilities and defense industry, including, if necessary, common borrowing , as several heads of state and government have proposed.
One thing is certain. As with all other major challenges – climate change, pandemics, migration, energy…–, relying solely on national solutions cannot be enough. It’s 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 needed to take control of our own defense industry destiny.
