António Costa, who takes over the Presidency of the European Council on 1 December, wants to organise ‘informal retreats’ for European leaders.
The first one is due to take place on 3 February in Belgium, we learnt on Thursday 28 November.
“Mr Costa wants to organise informal retreats for leaders. The idea is to organise real informal meetings where they can discuss strategic areas without coming to any conclusions. The leaders themselves have asked for more strategic discussions, but these retreats also provide an opportunity to reach agreement without pressure to bring ideas together”, explained a senior European official. Defence is “a subject that is not traditionally at the heart of the EU’s activities, which is why Mr Costa chose this subject for the retreat”, the source added.
The first retreat, on defence, will also allow European leaders to hold discussions with the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and, separately, with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, calls for investment in defence research and development.
On Thursday, at a meeting with a group of journalists including Agence Europe, Mr Borrell called for increased investment in defence research and development. “We need to invest much more in this area”, he argued. According to the ‘CARD’ report published on 19 November (see EUROPE 13527/4), while defence research and development spending is on the rise, it is growing at a slower rate than defence equipment procurement (+6% in real terms compared with 2022), with a projected increase from €11 billion in 2023 to €13 billion in 2024. This is not enough, according to the High Representative. “We don’t do well in R&D, we spend 10 times less than the United States”, he lamented. According to Mr Borrell, the United States spends between €100 and 120 billion a year.
According to the European Defence Agency, “a continuing increase in defence R&D is essential for EU Member States to remain at the technological cutting edge”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)