European Union votes to deepen defence industry ties with Ukraine
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks to European commissioner for defence and space Andrius Kubilius Picture: Virginia Mayo/AP
European Union legislators voted on Tuesday to deepen integration of the bloc’s defence industry with Ukraineas US peace plan talks continue and Russia’s unconventional warfare operations rattle the 27-nation bloc.
Members of the European Parliament voted 457-148, with 33 abstentions, to approve a €1.5-billion programme, with €300 million slated for the Ukraine Support Instrument.
Raphael Glucksmann, an EU politician from France’s S&D party, said the defence programme “will enable us to build a more resilient and sovereign Europe” through partnering with Ukraine to build a cutting-edge military industrial complex.
“This is key to making sure we can protect our democracies effectively and autonomously,” he said.
Ukraine’s defence industry “needs us”, EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius told EU legislators before the vote in Strasbourg, France, without mentioning the ongoing peace negotiations to end the war.
“But we need Ukraine’s defence innovations even more.”
He said that allowing Ukrainian access to the EU’s Defence Investment Programme “makes it possible to procure defence equipment in, with and for Ukraine”.
EU defence spending is expected to total around €392 billion this year, almost double the amount of four years ago, before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022.
The Trump administration has signalled that it is prioritising US security on its own domestic borders and in Asia. It has told Europeans that they must fend for themselves and Ukraine in the future.
Born out of the carnage of the two world wars, the EU started as a trading bloc designed to avert conflict. But Russia’s war in Ukraine has spurred a shift in the Brussels-based bloc, heightening its defence and security posture.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, believes that about €3.4 trillion will probably be spent on defence over the next decade. To help, it intends to propose boosting the EU’s long-term budget for defence and space to €131 billion.
“We shall be powerful geopolitically if we shall be strong in our defence, and we shall be strong in defence if we shall be strong in our defence industry, and if we shall be strong in our defence industry, we shall be industrially independent, autonomous and much less fragmented,” Mr Kubilius said.
EU member countries are being urged to buy much of their military equipment within the bloc, working mostly with European suppliers – in some cases with EU help to cut prices and speed up orders.
Under the road map, EU nations should purchase equipment from abroad only when costs, performance or supply delays make it preferable.
Mr Kubilius said EU-based defence companies can apply for tax breaks and other financial incentives to fund so-called European defence projects of common interest that “no member state can ever build alone, but that will protect the whole of Europe”, such as Eastern Flank Watch, Drone Defence Initiative or Space Shield.
Permitting Ukrainian companies to participate in these projects “allows us to inject Ukrainian military innovation in the European defence industry”, he said.
Last week, the European Commission rolled out a new defence package to allow tanks and troops to deploy more rapidly across Europe as well as the EU Defence Industry Transformation Roadmap, which aims to simplify and unify regulations on the EU’s defence industry, and corral investment into domestic production of weapons, vehicles, satellites, shells and bullets.
Before the vote, Mr Kubilius said that the defence programme is meant to make sure big nations cannot seize territories of weaker nations.
“My country Lithuania, was really a victim of such previous policies prevailing in the European continent,” he said, referring to the Soviet occupation of Lithuania for 50 years.
“That is why I am for a strong Europe and a strong European defence industry.”
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