“Europe should spend more on defense.” This Monday, Josep Borrell, the European Union’s (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, insisted on the need to deploy more military force for the community club to consolidate its position in the world. “If we want to be a power, we need a greater capacity to intervene militarily when needed,” he said.
during a conversation 38 Cercle d’Economia met in BarcelonaThe Spanish diplomat also pointed out that Brussels should double. military aid with Ukraine So the country can defend itself in the war that ensued after the war. invasion Russia. “You can’t win elections by saying you have to spend more on balls, but the truth is the world is a dangerous place (…) if we stop supporting Ukraine the war is over.” aforementioned.
Asked by the political scientist and director. CIDOB Europe’s high representative, Pol Morillas, assured me that I am “not optimistic” about the progress of the war and the negotiations in Ukraine this summer.
“We took too long”
Implicitly, Borrell also pointed to the need to submit. Kyiv The highly anticipated F-16 warplanes. Although he celebrated this, unlike what he did after Russia’s annexation Crimea In 2014, the EU now chose to arm the Ukrainians, and the Spanish diplomat made a self-criticism. “We’ve spent a very long time doing the things that are obvious we should be doing,” he said of his posting. leopard tanks and Patriot anti-defense missile systems.
In terms of military supplies, the war in Ukraine cost the EU about 65,000 million euros. However, the high representative pointed out that the true cost of the conflict goes far beyond tanks and missiles. And European States have left nearly 700,000 euros in aid to their citizens to mitigate the rise in food and energy prices. In the next few years, European armies will spend about 70 billion euros on modernization.
On the other hand, Borrell stressed that the EU should strengthen its diplomatic ties with Latin America, where there are still doubts about European foreign activities. “If we don’t have an extraordinary relationship with them, it will be someone else,” he said.