EU defense commissioner on how to implement the EU’s defense plans

European defence industry demands more European investment, EU’s defence commissioner tells Radio Schuman

The EU is exploring new and bold strategies to strengthen its defence sector. Relaxing strict fiscal rules to boost defence spending, accessing what is known as the SAFE instrument to raise capital, and expanding the European Investment Bank’s mandate to support military projects are some of the proposals to member states developed in the EU’s White Paper on Defence.

At the EU summit in Brussels last week, the EU leaders discussed the commission’s proposal for the member states to allocate amounts as high as €800 billion in defence spending over the next four years to strengthen Europe's defence infrastructure.

“When the war comes, you need to have your industry developed on high level in order to maintain, to repair and to produce new weapons,” says the EU’s defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius regarding the proposed increase in the defence budgets, “Now our industry really demands much more for European investment in order to develop our industry like a strategic asset.”

Kubilius also doubted Europe's readiness for Eurobonds and emphasised developing military mobility infrastructure.

Radio Schuman also looks at an important deadline today in the EU’s investigations into Apple, Meta and Alphabet on whether they violated the Digital Markets Act, and also at some experimental attempts to curb irregular migration through Artificial Intelligence.

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