European leaders are meeting in Copenhagen on Wednesday 1 October for an informal summit under the Danish Presidency of the EU Council to discuss defence issues and support for Ukraine, against a backdrop of heightened security.
These issues will be addressed “with importance and urgency”, according to several European diplomats, in the light of recent incursions by unidentified drones, which notably flew over the Copenhagen airport and Danish military sites on the weekend of 27 and 28 September.
These incursions come after Russian fighter jets and drones violated the airspace of Poland, Romania and Estonia in recent weeks (see EUROPE 13715/21).
Ahead of the informal meeting in Copenhagen, as well as the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) the following day (see EUROPE 13720/2), Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and France sent anti-drone resources to secure the summits. Denmark also banned civilian drone flights as of 29 September.
Preparing a European defence. The President of the European Council, António Costa, who is co-chairing the informal meeting with the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, acknowledged in his letter of invitation to the informal summit (see EUROPE 13713/24) on 19 September that there was an urgent need to “build a Europe capable of responding effectively, autonomously and together to today’s and tomorrow’s threats”.
This is illustrated by the EUs intention to adopt the ‘White paper for European defence - Readiness 2030’, which is due to be presented by the European Commission on 16 October, ahead of the European Council of 23 and 24 October.
A ‘European Drone Wall’. The aim of the informal meeting in Copenhagen is precisely to discuss the initial ideas put forward by the European Commission in a framework document it published on 29 September (see EUROPE 13719/11).
Among the flagship projects presented, the establishment of a ‘European Drone Wall’, with detection, tracking and interception capabilities, is particularly topical (see EUROPE 13720/3). It was described as an “immediate priority“ by the European Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, on Friday 26 September. However, he acknowledged that it could take a year to implement (see EUROPE 13718/16).
European leaders are expected to discuss the increased threat to Europe’s “eastern flank” more broadly, as well as governance issues, including the possibility of greater coordination between European defence ministers on military capability issues.
Frozen Russian assets. Another issue that is likely to come up for discussion is the European Commission’s proposal to use the cash balances of Russian fixed assets, held mainly by Euroclear and maturing, without directly confiscating these assets (see EUROPE 13720/4).
On Thursday 25 September, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also called for greater use of frozen Russian assets in the European Union to support Ukraine’s defence, in the form of an interest-free loan of up to €140 billion (see EUROPE 13718/17). Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, whose country hosts Euroclear, said on Tuesday 30 September that he was “not enthusiastic” about the idea and would use the summit to express his views on the subject.
“This is a very complex issue, with a lot of financial and legal implications”, acknowledged one European diplomat. “I would not expect the leaders to go into the detail of those implications, but certainly there needs to be political guidance on whether they are ready to work on this in order use of the immobilised assets”, he continued.
Modification of the framework for Ukraine’s accession. In the margins of the meeting, informal discussions are also expected to cover the ongoing negotiations on the 19th package of sanctions against Russia (see EUROPE 13713/1), as well as the possibility of modifying the procedure of Ukraine’s EU accession process in order to circumvent Hungary’s veto on the opening of the first cluster of negotiating chapters (see EUROPE 13673/2).
During his “Tour des Capitales” in September, the President of the European Council, António Costa, sought the views of European leaders on the possibility of opening each of the sets of chapters (35 negotiating chapters in total) by a qualified majority of Member States rather than unanimity. Closing the clusters would continue to require unanimity.
While this proposal was favourably received by a large majority of leaders, with no firm rejection from any of them, according to one diplomat, any change to the framework does require the unanimous agreement of all 27 Member States, which is “far from guaranteed”. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys and Camille-Cerise Gessant)