EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen said a common “European Defence Union” will be necessary to “deter” Russia in light of the Trump administration’s demand that the bloc pay for its own defence.
In a speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Monday, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that “illusions are being shattered” about continuing to rely on the United States for Europe’s defence.
“After the end of the Cold War, some believed that Russia could be integrated in Europe’s economic and security architecture. While others hoped that we could rely indefinitely on America’s full protection. And so, we lowered our guard,” she admitted.
“It is time to build a European Defence Union that ensures peace on our continent through unity and strength. This is Europe’s moment. And Europe will rise to it,” von der Leyen added.
The former German defence minister, who has been accused of presiding over the “decimation” of the Bundeswehr armed forces, said that Russia is outpacing “all of Europe combined” in terms of military spending.
Von der Leyen said that collectively, EU states currently spend less than the 2 per cent of GDP baseline requirement for the NATO alliance and that they must look to increase to over three per cent.
She said that the “bulk of new investments can only come from member states”, and thus, Brussels put forward plans to allow €800 billion in new spending from member states through loans and national debt without facing penalties for breaking EU fiscal restrictions.
“Europe is called to take greater charge of its own defence. Not in some distant future but already today. Not with incremental steps but with the courage that the situation requires. We need a surge in European defence. And we need it now,” she said.
While some nations have responded to President Trump’s call to increase their defence spending, with Poland, Estonia, and Lithuania committing to spending five per cent of GDP on their militaries, it remains to be seen if other major powers will follow suit.
Incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz has called for the parliament to amend to constitution to lift the debt brake limit to finance around €500 billion in fresh defence spending.
Although Merz has secured an agreement with his likely coalition partners, the leftist Social Democrats, he faces opposition in the Bundestag, with the Greens potentially holding veto power over the incoming government.
Meanwhile, in France, President Emmanuel Macron has called for a massive rearmament and reindustrialisation of the country to manufacture weapons and other military assets. However, it is unclear how Macron intends to pay for such a project, given that he has already committed to not increasing taxes to fund the new defence spending measures.
Macron, like Von der Leyen, has been a chief advocate for the formation of an EU Army given that France, being the lone nuclear armed member of the European Union, would likely play a key leadership role.
The prospect of actually convincing member states to coalesce around a bloc-wide standing force likely remains distant. Yet, significant hurdles, such as different weapons standards among European nations and the lack of a common language or defined leadership hierarchy, stand in the way of the globalist project.
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