“Peace in our Union can no longer be taken for granted. We are facing a European security crisis. But we know that Europe has always been built on crises. So this is the time for peace through strength. It is time for a common defense. More courage will be needed in the coming weeks and months. And the most difficult choices lie ahead. The time for illusions is over,” declared EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at the EP plenary session on RearmEu.
According to her, there is a new awareness to think differently and act accordingly.
"At the European Council, I saw a level of consensus on European defense that is not only unprecedented, but was completely unimaginable just a few weeks ago. There is a new awareness that we need to think differently and act accordingly," Von der Leyen noted.
Von der Leyen stressed that the European security order has been shaken and underlined the need for a common defense "as a deterrent" to those who threaten a united Europe.
"After the end of the Cold War, some believed that Russia could be integrated into Europe's economic and security architecture. Others hoped to be able to rely on America's full protection indefinitely. And so, we lowered our guard. We have reduced defense spending from an average of more than 3% to less than half. We want to pull every financial lever we have to strengthen and accelerate our defense production. With the Rearm Europe plan, we can mobilize up to 800 billion euros," reiterated the EU Commission president, who then focused on several points of RearmEU.
"First, the national defence clause. Let me start with why it is essential to mobilise national budgets. Today, we spend just under 2% of our GDP on defence. All analyses agree that we need to mobilise more than 3%. The entire European budget amounts to only 1% of our GDP. It is therefore clear that most of the new investments are generated solely by the national instrument that we can use. And we propose to activate it in a controlled, limited and coordinated way, for all Member States, this could quickly and effectively transform our defence budgets by up to 650 billion euros over the next four years, adding 1.5% of GDP to their defence budgets.
Secondly, the European Council has approved our proposal for a new financial instrument. We have called it secure. Security Action for Europe. We offer member states up to 150 billion euros in loans - to invest following some basic principles. They can focus on some selected strategic capability areas, from air defence to drones, from strategic assets to cyber, to name a few, to recapture the impact of our investments from manufacturers other than our defence industry”, she stressed.
"It is time to build a European Defence Union that guarantees peace on our continent through unity and strength," she concluded. (A2 Televizion)
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