EU leaders pledge to boost defense readiness by 2030

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - The EU leaders have agreed to accelerate plans to strengthen Europe’s defense and security, setting a clear goal to ramp up readiness by 2030 in response to growing threats to its security.

The bloc has announced the security and defense conclusions of its ongoing summit in Brussels on Thursday.

The council said in a statement that it is committed to delivering "at pace and at scale" so that Europe can "deal autonomously, in a coordinated way, and with a 360° approach" to current and future challenges.

"Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its repercussions for European and global security in a changing environment constitute an existential challenge for the European Union," it noted.

EU leaders endorsed a new European Defense Readiness Roadmap 2030 and urged member states to operationalize all priority defense areas with support from the European Defense Agency (EDA).

They called for “capability coalitions” to be set up by the end of 2025, with concrete projects to begin in early 2026.

The conclusions highlight efforts to reduce strategic dependencies and close critical capability gaps while boosting Europe’s defense industry.

The European Council also condemned recent “violations of the airspace of several Member States” and stressed the need to defend “all EU land, air and maritime borders,” with particular attention to threats on the eastern flank.

In response to hybrid attacks and airspace violations linked to Russia and Belarus, the EU will step up protection of “critical infrastructure, including energy, digital and undersea infrastructure.”

Leaders agreed to prioritize projects enhancing anti-drone and air defense capabilities. They also backed faster joint development of space assets for security and defense.

Acknowledging the need for greater investment, leaders welcomed progress on EU financing tools and urged the European Investment Bank to expand its support for defense industries and start-ups.

Finally, the council stressed that a “stronger and more capable European Union” in defense will complement NATO, “which remains, for those states that are members of it, the foundation of their collective defense.”