European defense needs a ‘big bang,’ says EU commissioner for defense

ATHENS

European defense needs a “big bang,” the EU Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius said on Thursday, arguing that incremental steps are no longer sufficient to rearm Europe.

“EU defense needs a “big bang”’ because we can no longer achieve what we need through this step-by-step improvement of the situation,” he said during a debate about the EU White Paper on the future of European defense at the Lithuanian parliament, public broadcaster LRT reported.

Emphasizing that the union should follow the mantra that if one wants peace, one must prepare for war, he drew attention that Russia switched to a war economy.

“Russia produces more weapons in three months than all NATO countries, including the US, produce in a year,” Kubilius said, adding that Russia will spend even more on war this year.

In purchasing power parity terms, it will spend more than all EU countries combined will spend on defense, he said.

On relations with the US that have experienced major tension since Donald Trump took office in January, Kubilius underscored that Europe should take Washington’s changing priorities into account.

“We are all well aware that the US will be increasingly focused on China’s rising power, and will have to devote more and more of its security resources to it. Naturally, we have to plan for an evolutionary decline in America’s involvement in our security for such reasons,” he said.

“This is why we need to shift the responsibility for our defense onto our own shoulders,” Kubilius said, noting that the white paper is an integral part of the union’s efforts to improve its defense capabilities.

However, he stressed that the EU's plans to strengthen its military capabilities are in no way in competition with NATO plans.

Published by the European Commission last week, the document offers solutions to address critical capability gaps and build a strong industrial base for defense, suggests ways for member states to invest more in defense, procure defense systems and increase the readiness of Europe’s defense industry in the long term.