Borrell: EU must be able to defend Europe on its own

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell believes that the EU needs to change the paradigm of European defense.

According to Yevropeiska Pravda, he wrote about this in his blog on the occasion of the publication of his book Europe Between Two Wars.

According to him, the EU has delegated its security to the US for too long, and in the last 30 years, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe has allowed itself to "quietly disarm".

He noted that the EU was built around the internal market and economy, but, in his opinion, the EU cannot continue on this path.

"We have to take strategic responsibility and become capable of defending Europe on our own, building a strong European backbone within NATO," Borrell said.

The top diplomat added that the EU must make this leap forward in a very short period of time.

"Not because we intend to fight. On the contrary, we want to prevent war by having the means to reliably deter any aggressor. This does not mean creating a European army. Defense is and will remain the exclusive responsibility of our member states for the foreseeable future," he said.

Borrell explained that it is primarily about increasing spending at the national level, where defense spending should rise to more than 2% of GDP.

Author - Olena Madiak, 15/04/2024