Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, Europe has begun to compensate for years of underfunding of the security and defense sectors, so that member states’ national defense budgets have increased by an average of 20% since 2022.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated this in Brussels during a speech at the European Security and Defense Summit.
“European defense is a task for the whole of Europe – for its member states and for member states that must cooperate closely with each other. Member countries have increased defense spending, with their national defense budgets increasing by 20% from 2022. It was compensation for years of underfunding. At the same time, we spend more together on joint capabilities and projects. The European Peace Fund allowed the mobilization of 6.1 billion euros to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine with lethal and non-lethal equipment and supplies,” the president of the European Commission said.
She noted that within the framework of the European Defense Fund, European countries are investing more together in the development of modern capabilities in such critical areas as the navy, air assets, space-based early warning systems and cyber defense. As part of the latest proposal for the formation of the European defense industry program, the European Commission proposes to allocate an additional 1.5 billion euros from the EU budget for such purposes. This, according to Ursula von der Leyen, will allow further progress in strengthening European sovereignty.
“Let me be very clear that European sovereignty will never be achieved at the expense of our partners and friends. Obviously, this will never undermine the importance and necessity of our NATO Alliance. De facto, that Europe will be more sovereign, in particular, in defense, this will be important for strengthening NATO, since the member countries will have a single set of forces. But a key provision of European sovereignty is the ability to take responsibility for what is important and even existential for us,” Von der Leyen emphasized.
As Ukrinform reported, a few days ago, during a speech at the Nueva Economia Forum, EU High Representative Josep Borrell expressed his belief that after the start of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the EU entered the third stage of its own formation, which consists in creating its own defense and security system, with a stronger role EU in collective security under the auspices of NATO.
