We Need a European Defense Union – Now!

Eight months ago, US vice president JD Vance’s speech at the 61st Munich Security Conference shattered the illusion that the EU could continue to rely on the US as a guarantor of security. But instead of using this as a prompt to invest heavily in an independent European security architecture, as repeatedly promised by German chancellor Friedrich Merz and French president Emmanuel Macron, European leaders – increasingly entangled in domestic political quarrels – are taking more of a back seat in key geopolitical and security debates. The European Commission's current push for a “drone wall” has done little to change this.

Alarmingly, European leaders now appear to be leaving the leadership role – even on support for Ukraine – to US president Donald Trump, who has now publicly humiliated Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for a second time. There is no sign of strategic independence from the US, which is keen to annex countries like Greenland and plans to withdraw large numbers of troops from Europe, nor of systematic coordination of Europe’s armed forces and defense capabilities in the face of increasing Russian aggression in the Baltic region. Rather, the impression is that Europe has taken advantage of the distraction provided by Trump’s Middle East ceasefire to return to business as usual. This is a fatal mistake.

Creating a Joint European Military Force

At the Heinrich Böll Foundation's annual foreign policy conference at the end of September, former Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin underlined that, in relation to the conflict with Russia, Europe must not only improve its defensive capabilities – it must change its entire mindset. He hit the nail on the head. The new geopolitical era in which we find ourselves requires more than just a four-step recruitment plan for the German armed forces. Even [influential but controversial German economist] Hans-Werner Sinn is now of the opinion that national armies should be abolished and replaced by a joint European armed force. Incidentally, this is in line with the Green Party’s long-standing political program. 

The leaders of the European Communities’ founding members agreed on a defense community as early as 1952, but the idea never left the drawing board. A new study by our foundation demonstrates how Europe’s defense architecture has instead grown into a patchwork of more than 160 bi- and plurilateral defense partnerships. The current drone defense plans are likely to further deepen these parallel structures. After decades of European patchwork solutions, the time has finally come to put the idea of a defense union into practice.

Europe Must Pool Its Forces More Effectively

For EU member states, nothing less than their existence as independent, free, and democratic countries is at stake. For far too long, there has been a failure to take decisive action to strengthen the pooling of defense resources. This has been to the detriment of the interests of European citizens – and of our children’s future freedom, security, wellbeing, and prosperity. The promise of Europe is in danger of crumbling, crushed between authoritarian actors in Moscow, Washington, and Beijing who are hostile to the European idea. 

The establishment of a European defense union that is worthy of the name would be both an act of liberation and a demonstration of power. It would restore Europeans’ faith in their ability to achieve their goals – by working together – in these uncertain times. And above all, it would send a credible signal to Russia, and the rest of the world, that we are prepared to take action – including to defend ourselves. 

Such a move could be accompanied by overtures to non-EU countries that wish to participate and thus forge closer alliances with Europe; it could also demonstrate that effective action at an EU level can be taken without achieving unanimity within the European Council and thus the approval of Viktor Orbán.

Given the current need for massive defense investment in the EU and the Union’s responsibility for the security of its European partners, above all Ukraine, real leadership is required. Key European countries – Germany and France but also Poland, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom – should come up to the plate. A meaningful first step would be the creation of a European Security Council to facilitate joint decision-making on the path to a defence union. Such transformative changes are not the stuff of coalition agreements; they are the fruit of courageous leadership. Mr Merz and Mr Macron, the time is now.

Get Involved - Presidents' column

Get involved! There’s no other way to be real – thus the message of Heinrich Böll, and, to this day, his encouragement is inspiring us. With this column the Presidents of the Foundation involve themselves in current social and political debates. This column will appear each month, authored, in turn, by Jan Philipp Albrecht and Imme Scholz.

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