The EU needs to take more responsibility for its security and compensate for the shortfalls that have been underlined by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borell has said.
“The most obvious example” of such shortfalls are “the depleted stockpiles resulting from the military support we provided to Ukraine” Borrell wrote in his blog on Sunday.
But there were many others “inherited from past budget cuts and underinvestment,” he added.
According to Borrell, the combined defense spending in the EU has increased by only 20% from 1999 to 2021, compared to 66% for the US, 292% for Russia and 592% for China.
The events in Ukraine have resulted in “a tectonic shift of the European security landscape,” the diplomat insisted. “Now it is clear that Europe is in danger.”
In such circumstances, “the EU needs to take on more responsibility for its own security,” which would require creating “modern and interoperable European armed forces, looking at the higher-end of the spectrum and also striving to scale up capabilities and forces,” he pointed out.