European Union leaders gather on Monday in Brussels under increasing pressure to terminate the stalemate and agree on significantly higher defense expenditures despite gloomy economic prospects.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer plan to join EU leaders in talks on strengthening European defense skills.
The return of the US President Donald Trump makes a thing in the middle of concern for his interest in taking control of Greenland, a possible smaller number of American soldiers in Europe and less by DPA Daniel Fiott, a professor at the Free University in Brussels (VUB).
– The biggest challenge is how to get Europeans to take over the conventional defense of Europe – said Fiott, which runs the defense and statehood program in the Center for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy in VUB.
– No one will wait for Europe, not just Mr. Putin in Moscow, “Fiott said, thinking of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The EU has been struggling in recent years to increase weapons production, despite the fact that the Russian war against Ukraine added the urgency to effort and military aid to Kiev that exhausts domestic supplies.
So far, the EU countries have failed to agree on the precise plan in which the investment is needed and which capacities should be built by when, Fiott said.
The meeting in Brussels is focused on looking at the challenge.
Another great challenge is an agreement on financing higher defense consumption. After several crises, many European countries have no money and face stumped economies.
(Vijesti.ba / Fena)
