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🇩🇪 Germany /Conflict & Security

EU scraps defense initiative after Berlin resistance sparks dispute over responsibilities

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency Ongoing story
  • EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas canceled plans to create an expert group on strengthening European defense policy after opposition from member-state governments.
  • Germany and Italy had reportedly opposed the group, which was due to propose ways to close gaps in Europe’s conventional military capabilities.
  • The EU foreign service said it would continue seeking cooperation with member states because Europe still needed to move faster on defense.

Kaja Kallas abruptly canceled the planned launch of an expert group on European defense after government representatives resisted the initiative, exposing another dispute over who should lead the bloc’s defense planning.

“Some member states felt that this was not the right way forward at this time,” an EU official in Brussels said. After discussions with ministers, the decision was made not to pursue the initiative.

Some member states felt that this was not the right way forward at this time.

· EU officialThe official explained why the planned defense expert group was canceled.

The group was supposed to work under Kallas’s direction and develop proposals for closing gaps in Europe’s conventional military capabilities more quickly and effectively. It was also expected to produce a report with concrete recommendations. Leading political and military representatives from several EU countries, as well as Britain and Ukraine, had been selected for membership and were due to be presented on Monday morning.

Germany and Italy were among the governments that opposed the group, according to information obtained by the German Press Agency. Berlin gave no official explanation for its position. One possible factor was the German government’s increasingly critical view of Kallas and its preference for relying on NATO planning processes on defense issues.

The diagnosis has not changed: Europe needs to move faster on defense.

· EU officialThe official said the EU foreign service would continue seeking cooperation despite the setback.

Berlin is also advocating the merger of large parts of the foreign service led by Kallas with the European Commission. The foreign service said it would not drop the defense issue and would examine new forms of cooperation with EU states.

“The diagnosis has not changed: Europe needs to move faster on defense,” the EU official said. “We do not want to look back in a few years and find that Europe was so focused on where it needed to be in 2035 that it failed to do what was necessary in 2027.”

We do not want to look back in a few years and find that Europe was so focused on where it needed to be in 2035 that it failed to do what was necessary in 2027.

· EU officialThe official contrasted long-term defense planning with immediate needs.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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