On Thursday 23 October, the European Council underlined its determination to achieve the objective of “resolutely” reinforcing Europe’s defence preparedness by 2030 “at pace and at scale, so that Europe is better equipped to act and deal autonomously, in a coordinated way, and with a 360° approach, with immediate and future challenges and threats”.
“In Finland, we have a saying: we’re not afraid, we’re ready. I really hope Europe can say the same. We have around five years to beef up our defence, because Russia is and will remain a permanent threat to the European Union and European countries”, warned the Finnish Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo. Similarly, for his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, European rearmament is “essential”. She added that the EU lacked weapons, air defence and drones.
In its conclusions, the European Council considers that work should focus in particular on concrete projects aimed at strengthening Member States’ joint efforts to improve their anti-drone and air defence capabilities, in a coordinated manner, making full use of the relevant existing financial instruments, including SAFE and EDIP.
For several weeks now, Member States have been facing incursions by fighter jets and drones into their airspace. On Thursday, on the sidelines of the European Council, a Russian fighter jet and a Russian refuelling aircraft entered Lithuanian airspace for a few seconds.
The EU has identified nine priority capability areas, on which the European Council calls for the results of the work carried out by the Member States to be made operational. This will be done “with the support of the European Defence Agency and on the basis of a coherent overall approach, based on the ‘Strategic Compass’, so that Europe develops all the modern capabilities it needs, in full coherence with NATO”.
The European Council also wants the process of setting up capability coalitions in all the priority areas to be finalised “by the end of the year”.
“In doing so, the Union will reduce its strategic dependencies, address its critical capability gaps and strengthen the European defence technological and industrial base accordingly throughout the Union so that it is in a position to better supply equipment in the quantities and at the pace needed”, the leaders believe. They also stress the importance of close cooperation with Ukraine and its integration and contribution to the European defence industry. Speaking to the media, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, pointed out that his country had defence technology that the Europeans did not possess, and that he was prepared to share it and make co-productions.
The European Council also calls on Member States to increasingly direct their defence investments towards common development, production and supply, “as demand aggregation on the basis of standardised requirements and economies of scale are key to providing predictability to industry, lowering costs and fostering interoperability”.
“In some areas we want to enhance interoperability between States. So, joint procurement can be a factor there”, said Micheal Martin from Ireland. “It’s not about (having) one country next to another, but about producing more efficiently, producing and acquiring together”, added Luc Frieden from Luxembourg.
See the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/j40 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with the editorial staff)