Opening remarks

Dear President, 

Honourable Members of the European Parliament, 

Next week, leaders will meet in The Hague for the 2025 NATO Summit. 

The significance of the context cannot be overstated.

We are living in very dangerous, tough times.

Russia is already a direct threat to the European Union. 

Russia is:

• violating our airspace;
• conducting provocative military manoeuvres near EU borders;
• targeting our trains and planes;
• attacking our pipelines, undersea fiber-optic cables, and electricity grids;
• assaulting our industry, including companies supporting Ukraine.
• And is recruiting criminals to carry out sabotage attacks

And it is steadily building up its military forces and expanding its nuclear arsenal. 

Last year Russia spent more on defence than the EU combined. 

This year, Russia is spending more on defence than on its own health care, education and social policy combined. 

This is a long-term plan for long-term aggression. You don’t spend that much on military if you do not plan to use it.

Those who border Russia have always felt Russia’s provocations more. Those of us with a history of Soviet imperialism feel it the most. But Russia’s threat to transatlantic unity and security is a problem for us all.

Every European country – and indeed every NATO ally – must be thinking about defence. In 2014, NATO countries pledged to actually invest 2% of GDP in defence by 2024. But in one year, the geopolitical situation has shifted so dramatically that we are now looking at a 5% target.

Europe’s collective economic might is unmatched. I don’t believe there is any threat we can’t overcome, if we act together, and with our NATO allies.

Three points.

First, the NATO summit is first and foremost about ramping up defence spending.

President von der Leyen said to this House in March that the European Union must pull every financial lever we have to do this.

The national escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact provides budgetary space for Member States to spend more on defence.  This could mobilise up to 650 billion euro for defence over the next four years, and add 1.5% of GDP to Member States’ defence budgets.

The new Security Action for Europe instrument – SAFE: 

• is an offer of 150 billion euro in loans, based on a few principles:
• They finance purchases mainly from European producers and therefore boost Europe’s defence industry in the process;
• contracts are multiannual so the industry gets the predictability it needs;
• and they focus on joint procurement which will push industry to scale up quickly while prices come down.

The SAFE instrument is also open to EU partners who sign Security and Defence Partnerships. We have signed seven of these already, including with four NATO allies: Norway, Albania, North Macedonia and the United Kingdom. We hope to one more, within a short time frame with another NATO ally – Canada – very, very soon.

When NATO leaders discuss defence spending at the Summit, these examples underline how the European Union directly helps our 23 Member States who are also NATO allies to meet their NATO targets.

And a stronger Europe Union is also a stronger NATO.

Second, Ukraine.

The European Union is doing its part here too, not least because Ukraine is Europe’s first line of defence.

We know that Russia responds to strength and nothing else. That is why we have just proposed an 18th sanctions package to pile on the pressure. Every sanction weakens Russia’s ability to fight this war.

Do not be fooled. Thanks to EU sanctions, Russia has lost tens of billions of euros in oil revenues. Its sovereign wealth fund declined by 6 billion only last month. Sanctions work.

In parallel, the EU is the biggest provider of support to Ukraine, including over 50 billion euro in military assistance. 

We have to do more for Ukraine, for our own security too. To quote my friend, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, if we don’t help Ukraine further, we should all start learning Russian. The stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield today, the stronger they will be around the negotiation table, when Russia finally is ready to talk.

Third, the importance of unity.

Dear President, 

Honourable Members, 

Europe is under attack. And our continent sits in a world becoming more dangerous every day.
But Europe’s will to act together is real. 

Over the past seven decades, we have built a common market, strong European economies and an unbreakable European spirit. 

Has it been hard? Of course it has, we have 27 democracies. And the voices in this chamber only underline how many diverse opinions there are in Europe. 

But what unites us – what must keep uniting us – is a goal to keep our citizens safe. This is a goal we share with every single one of our NATO allies, including the United States.

I spoke at the start of Russia’s threat to Europe but Russia poses a 360 degree threat in the world: 

• From helping shield the Assad regime’s use of chemical agents against the Syrian people;
• to arming and training mercenary forces from the Sahel to Sudan.
• or using its shadow fleet to smuggle weapons to Libya, in direct breech of the international arms embargo;

Russia is threat to global security.

During the Cold War, the United States and its allies far outclassed the Soviet Union and it won them the Cold War. 

Today, against NATO and the EU, Russia doesn’t stand a chance. But we must stick together.

When NATO leaders meet next week, keeping unity in the alliance is as much a priority as spending more on defence.

Dear President, 

Honourable Members,

Tough times require tough resolve.

Europe has always shown this when it needs to. 
And that is the message we take to the NATO Summit next week.

Thank you.

Closing remarks

Thank you Honourable Members for this very intensive debate. I will just react on a few things.

Of course we need public support for these steps. We need to explain to our people why we have to do this and why we also need to make sacrifices.

The problem with defence spending is, when you need it, it's too late. You have to make these investments when you are in peace time. And then it's actually much harder to explain to the people that why we need this. Of course, as politicians, we have so many places that we want to put public money into: education, social affairs, roads, you name it, infrastructure. There is so much. But if we don't have defence, and if we have the threats also pointed out by our intelligence services, and we don't take those threats seriously, then all the investments that we do in any other field actually will become in vain. And when we make defence investments, then it will also function as a deterrence, which means that, hopefully, the war is not coming to Europe.

Now, NATO is a defence alliance, and I don't agree with those who are spreading the Russian narratives that NATO enlargement is somehow threatening somebody. Why are these countries wanting to join NATO? Why did Finland and Sweden join now? Because of the threat coming from Russia. NATO is a defence alliance, and that's why it is the only thing that actually protects us, because together, we are strong.

Now when it comes to NATO having the military plans, and then the EU having the plans for the defence industry, it is to complement these two institutions. It is, like many of you said, not about the numbers, but actually the capabilities. What do we do with this money. And there, I also echo what was said by many members here, is that we need joint projects. We need joint procurement. We need to do these things together, because we need to also address the threats that we have together, not, national security, but actually the security of us all together.

There was also a question of against whom these weapons are used that we are buying. I mean, it's like, you having a security system at home. You don't need it unless somebody breaks in. This is exactly the same. You don't need those weapons unless somebody attacks you.

And like I said in my speech, as Russia is spending so much more on military, they will want to use it, and against whom they want to use it? Well, there are, of course, many options, but we have to make sure that this is not against us, and it's also that it's stopping there.

Then on the defence spending. We have a lot to learn from Ukraine, and I agree with those who said that that it doesn't have to be only about enriching the defence industry. No, if we look at Ukraine, they have built the defence industry from zero, from scratch. So actually, bringing also the costs down, using much shorter procurement times. And we need to learn from that.

Also, I want to address the issue of peace. Everybody in Europe wants peace. Europe is a peace project. We all agree on that, but we very clearly see right now the talks about the ceasefire, that Russia doesn't want peace. And it takes at least two to one peace, but it only takes one to want war. And that is, that is why we need to prepare.

We are living in dangerous times, and in order to have peace, you need to prepare for this. And I also want to address our Irish colleagues. Yes, peace doesn't mean that the human suffering will stop. If you surrender, you have the aggressor, and you say, okay, take all what you want, then it doesn't mean that the human suffering will stop. Our experience behind the Iron Curtain after the Second World War, countries like Ireland got to build up their prosperity. But for us it meant atrocities, mass deportations, suppressing your culture and language. This is what happens. It is also peace, but it's actually not freedom. It's not freedom of choice for people, and that is what the European Union is all about, and that is what we are also fighting for.

Somebody said here that Russia has no reason to attack NATO. Well, Russia didn't have any reason to attack Ukraine, either or Syria, or Georgia, the list is long. They are not acting rationally. And we are democracies. We look through this democracy prism that it's not rational. They wouldn't do that. It's not rational to attack NATO. Well, we can't think how they think. And we need to prepare and learn from our past mistakes ,and the past mistakes we have made in history. Many of you also mentioned this. There's not very far to see.

And what I want to stress to all of those representatives coming from countries that are much further from Russia, look at the world map. Europe is a very small continent. Whatever happens in one part of Europe has an effect on us all, and we are only strong when we act together, when we act together in NATO, when we act together, in Europe, a stronger European Union is also stronger NATO.

Thank you.