European Union leaders gathering on Monday in Brussels are under much pressure to break the deadlock and agree on significantly higher defence expenditures despite gloomy economic outlooks.
NATO Secretary-General, Mark Rutte and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer have planned to join EU leaders for discussions on bolstering European defence capabilities.
The return of U.S. President Donald Trump is making the matter ever more urgent amid concerns over his interest in gaining control of Greenland, possibly fewer U.S. soldiers in Europe and less support for Ukraine.
Daniel Fiott, a professor at the Free University Brussels (VUB), told dpa.
“The biggest challenge is how do we get Europeans to essentially take over the conventional defence of Europe,’’ said Fiott.
Fiott heads the Defence and Statecraft Programme at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at VUB.
“No one will wait for Europe, not least Mr Putin in Moscow,’’ Fiott said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The EU has struggled to ramp up arms production in recent years, in spite of Russia’s war against Ukraine adding urgency to the effort and military assistance for Kiev depleting domestic stocks.
EU countries have so far failed to agree on a precise plan of how big of an investment is needed and what capabilities should be built up by when, Fiott said.
He said the meeting in Brussels is focussed on taking stock of the challenges.
Another major challenge is agreeing on how to finance higher defence spending.
After several crises, many European countries are short on money and faced with faltering economies.
Possible solutions, such as joint borrowing at European level or the softening of the EU deficit limit, have failed to receive sufficient support.
A compromise could be to finance more defence projects via the European Investment Bank.
Fiott called on the EU’s two biggest countries, Germany and France, to take on a leadership role including in convincing the public that increasing spending was inevitable.
“If things get a lot worse in Ukraine and if the war spills over into Europe more generally, then the costs will be even bigger.
“No one likes spending money on the military, unfortunately in this period of history, it’s needed.’’
Fiott pointed towards several initiatives by the European Commission, including for enhanced cyber and air-missile defence, but urged leaders to go beyond the declaration phase, beyond words and come up with a coherent plan.’’
“Time is not on our side,’’ he stressed. (dpa/NAN)
