The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, called on European countries this Friday at the Forum Europa in Brussels to “wake up” and “commit much more” to defence capabilities, given that the “threat” from Russia will be “increasingly greater”.
At this breakfast briefing organised by New Economy Forum in the EU capital, Borrell was in charge of introducing the protagonist, Airbus CEO, Guillaume Faury. After highlighting Faury's career and that he is responsible for one of the “most important industrial companies that we Europeans have been able to create” in the aerospace sector, Borrell regretted that the demand for this industry is fragmented within the European Union due to the mentality that “the neighbour can become an enemy”. “The enemy is now someone else”, said the EU's High Representative.
Borrell considered this to be a “political problem” and referred to Russia’s war in Ukraine to point out that Russia represents a “threat” to Europe that “will only become greater”. He therefore urged Europe to “wake up” and do so by creating common defence capabilities and, in particular, ground capabilities. He explained that Ukraine cannot be provided with sufficient ground capabilities in this situation.
“We need people like you, people who have worked and participated in production, testing, research and development” of the defence sector, Borrell said, addressing Faury. He stressed that Europeans were able to unite to create Airbus 50 years ago and “without this union”, Europeans would have been “annihilated”.
He considered that promoting this joint defence is “a question of politics and also of having people capable of implementing the project”.
