On Thursday 26 June, European leaders invited the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union to present a roadmap for achieving defence preparedness at the October 2025 summit.
“To achieve the EU’s common defence readiness by 2030, the leaders stressed the need to fill critical capability gaps in a concrete and urgent manner, to finance the increase in defence spending and to foster partnerships with like-minded partners”, explained an EU source at the end of the discussion.
In its conclusions, the European Council noted that “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its repercussions for European and global security in a changing environment constitute an existential challenge for the European Union”.
In the wake of the NATO summit, which saw an agreement on defence spending representing 5% of GDP (see EUROPE 13667/1), it stressed the need to continue to “substantially” increase spending on Europe’s defence and security and to invest more together.
See the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/hky (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)