NATO and EU officials, defence ministers, military commanders and arms-industry representatives met at Albert Hall in Brussels on Wednesday, September 30, for the Euronews Defence and Space Summit. The one-day event focused on military readiness, production and the cross-border movement of troops and equipment, as governments face pressure to respond to Russian sabotage, arson and drone incursions.
Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken told Euronews journalist Angela Skujins that Europe faces a “dark winter” of further Russian hybrid attacks. Belgium has seen several drone incidents this year, some of which disrupted air traffic. “Russia, air attack, air attack, air attack. This is the biggest threat. So we need air defence, air defence, air defence,” Francken said.
More production, more spending
Europe needs Ukrainian technology to counter Russian jet-powered drones, Francken said, as well as “more stocks, more production, scale up production, and a large industrial base. Everything has to go faster.” Russia has 50 years of expertise in hybrid attacks, he said, and Belgium must keep pace with technological change. “I don't want to have 200,000 drones somewhere in a stock, and in two months you cannot even use them because they're outdated. So we have to adapt,” he said.
Belgium had been “like the worst pupil of the NATO class,” Francken said, spending 1 per cent of GDP on defence. Spending has now doubled. “But I cannot do in 18 months what has been neglected for 40 years.” He said Belgium has the EU’s highest debt and one of its most challenging budgetary positions, but remains committed to raising defence spending. Allocating 5% of GDP to defence would not be realistic for Belgium in the near term.
The summit agenda included defence investment, joint procurement, military mobility, production capacity, cyber security, protection of civilian and military infrastructure, secure cloud infrastructure and emerging technologies. The EU is pursuing a wider defence-readiness agenda aimed at increasing production and cooperation between member states. European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius has called for significant improvements to military mobility, pointing to the difficulties of moving troops and equipment quickly across national borders.
Whose weapons, whose industry?
Governments want to strengthen Europe’s defence industrial base, tackle supply-chain vulnerabilities and differences between national procurement systems, and increase European manufacturing capacity. The European Commission and EU states have proposed favouring domestic arms manufacturers to reduce reliance on US-made weapons. The proposal has divided member states, with some governments warning against over-protectionism given the manufacturing power of the US arms industry.
At the summit, US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder criticised the proposal. “Only our enemies benefit when we lose focus on making sure we have the most effective weapons, supporting our mutual defence,” he said. “Capability and availability should determine the solution, not geography,” he argued. On Tuesday, NATO’s top military commander Alexus Grynkewich told the European Parliament’s defence committee that “codifying preferences as to where military hardware is made” benefits Europe’s “adversaries.”
Puzder praised the Commission for allowing American defence material to be procured for Ukraine under the bloc’s recent €90 billion loan to Kyiv. He said the US would lobby for the same provisions in upcoming defence policies, and that the EU executive had indicated it had “no intention” of preventing member states from using national funds to buy US weapon systems. “We’ll keep having candid conversations. Sometimes we’re going to disagree. Generally, I believe we will agree,” he said.
The debate over which arms industry gets the contracts took place alongside calls for stronger EU-NATO coordination. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has stressed the need to maintain capabilities to respond to security threats. General Seán Clancy, Chairman of the EU Military Committee, and General Onno Eichelsheim, Chief of Defence of the Netherlands Armed Forces, were among the military leaders at the summit.
The costs beyond the summit hall
In Kyiv, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, told Euronews’ Sasha Vakulina that countries with drone cooperation agreements could gain access to Ukraine’s newest technology for intercepting Russian jet-powered drones. “This isn’t about any specific product. It’s, in principle, about cooperation between countries on similar products,” he said.
Ukrainian air-defence crews protecting the Kyiv region told Euronews that they sometimes have only 10 to 15 seconds to react to a jet-powered drone approaching the city. Some said recent attacks had left them with as little as an hour and a half of sleep.
On Tuesday, Ukraine urged the EU to use immobilised Russian assets to help cover a financial and military shortfall next year that could reach $78 billion (€68.77 billion) if allies don’t increase contributions. Ukraine’s finance minister, Sergii Marchenko, made the request in Brussels while meeting allied donors and financial institutions. The EU holds €210 billion in Russian sovereign assets, most of it in Euroclear, a Brussels depository. Marchenko called for a centralised, legally sound framework, while acknowledging the issue was politically difficult.