„Security is something more than defence. [...] Everything has a security dimension because everything is being weaponised. But defence owns the hard meaning of the word. Defense, which means having military capabilities, will be at the heart of EU policies. Maybe it will be the third act of the EU project. [...]
A war is not going to start tomorrow against us. But, we cannot deny the reality: a rising competition among big powers, high intensity conflicts between states, weaponisation of economic interdependency, cyber warfare and disinformation are part of our reality. [...]
We imagined to be surrounded by a ring of friends after the fall of Berlin Wall. This world is being replaced by a ring of fire around us. From instability from the Sahel to the Middle East to the Caucasus, to the Baltics. Not to look elsewhere in Africa. There is really a ring of fire around us. [...]
And I think that we are living a very important moment in the European construction process, because war is certainly looming on the horizon. And that's not a small matter. That's not a small thing. [...], today war comes back to us. And we have to look at this [...]
And we have obviously to do everything to avoid it. But you know that to deter that threat, we need to have the means to do so. It is nothing new. I was reading Robert Schumann Declaration, and this declaration started by saying, and I quote “World peace cannot be safeguarded without making creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which we are threatened”. [...]
The issue is: what should we do in order to achieve this new and ambitious goal? Until now, when speaking about wars, one would have said: “Ask NATO”. Now, it is not enough anymore. [...]
We have to face the two problems that we have. One is a problem of expenditure, of money, of resources, of finance. And then we have a problem of collective action: how do we manage, how do we organise our collective action? [...]
We have a problem of expenditure because we have neglected defence and security issues since the euro crisis. [...]
I'm only saying that we lack resources. [...]
There are four different levels: the States, the cooperation among States, the community action and the strategic alliances, mainly NATO. And we have to play on these four fields [...]
I am sure that the institutional setting of the defence and security in Europe will be one of the most important political debates among the Member States and with the European Parliament, in order to decide who does what. And I think that everybody has to do a lot.
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