The European Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, stated this Friday at the Forum Europa in Brussels that "it's time for us to stand on our own two feet" to protect the 450 million citizens that make up the EU.
Andrius Kubilius urged promoting European security autonomy at a briefing organized by the New Economy Forum in the EU capital, in light of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine and the US administration's shift in its stance toward the EU following the arrival of Donald Trump.
Kubilius asserted that the European Union is not competing with NATO and considered that, if the 27 support the rearmament plan proposed by the Commission, the European Union can provide added value "to ensure that NATO member states have the weapons they need to do their job”.
The plan, he explained, involves the Commission's support for Member States to develop their national defense capabilities "and build a strong European defense industry”.
The Commissioner cited the White Paper on Defense presented a few days ago to emphasize that the defense industry "is not just any industry, because it is a strategic resource". A resource, he added, that "in the event of war, must be close to the battlefield”.
After stating that the European defense industry "manufactures very high-quality products", he warned that it nevertheless "presents numerous problems". He noted that, in the 15 months following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "Member States purchased only 20% of their military equipment from the European Union”.
"We don't have a single defense market; our defense industry is highly fragmented", he said, noting that he always tells the ministers he meets that "protecting national industry will not protect us from Russia”.
Kubilius advocated developing the defense industry throughout the European Union, without fragmentation, with a single defense market and the capacity to compete globally.
“It's time for us in Europe to stand on our own two feet”, he stated, adding that “450 million European Union citizens should not depend on 340 million Americans to defend themselves against 140 million Russians, who cannot defeat 38 million Ukrainians”. “We can do better”, he added.
Along the same lines, he asserted that the EU lacks thousands of battle tanks, armored vehicles, new artillery pieces, and high-tech defense equipment.
He also urged the development of tools such as strategic airlift and air-to-air refueling. He also called for “implementing major defense projects of common European interest, such as the anti-aircraft shield or the eastern border defense shield”.
To achieve the goal of structurally strengthening the EU defense industry, the Commissioner highlighted the Commission's push for greater European investment and joint projects to overcome fragmentation and also to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles.
The proposal, he recalled, is to mobilize a potential additional €800 billion for defense over the coming years, of which €150 billion is in the form of guaranteed loans from the European Union, with a maturity of 45 years.
In addition to the loans, he noted that Member States are allowed to exceed fiscal rules to invest an additional 1.5% of their GDP in defense.
"If all Member States allocate an additional 1.5% of their GDP to defense, this will mean an additional €650 billion for defense spending in the EU over the next four years", he emphasized.
“There can be no more taboos”, he emphasized, regarding arms spending, adding that “we are breaking those that existed”, such as the fact that the European Investment Bank (EIB) now has more opportunities to invest in defense.
And at this point, he recalled that the Commission can propose, coordinate, and legislate, “but Member States are responsible for defense” and now “must act and make the necessary decisions not only for their own defense, but also to protect the 450 million inhabitants of our unión”.
The former Prime Minister of Lithuania in two different terms expressed his support for Europe to have defense industrial champions and the space to compete on a global scale. In this regard, he noted that, of the largest defense and space companies worldwide, the largest European defense company is Leonardo, which is number 13.
Therefore, he maintained that "we should not fear the expansion and consolidation of companies, making them large enough to compete globally”, without neglecting small and medium-sized businesses.
One of the points the commissioner sought to address arose after Nathalie Errard, Senior Vice President, Head of European and NATO Affairs at Airbus, asked how to explain to people that an EU program design authority "is the only way to have intellectual property and not depend on the influence of third countries”. This, she noted, "seems like a protectionist measure”.
Kubilius said the Commission is convinced of the need for joint procurement, joint project development, and the development of so-called European defense projects of common interest, and this "has nothing to do with any kind of protectionism”, she emphasized.
Regarding collaboration with US industry, she said she had no complaints, but she did openly criticize the US regulations that govern all US weapons exports, even affecting components of those weapons.
Under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), he recalled, the United States retains the legal power to decide where these weapons may or may not be used, "and that's what we saw recently in the war in Ukraine”. Therefore, he emphasized that in the EU, "we need capabilities that allow us to decide what to use, what targets to choose, and so on”.
