Kaja Kallas drops plan for EU defense expert group after member-state resistance

Kaja Kallas has abruptly abandoned plans to create an expert group tasked with strengthening European defense policy, after resistance from several EU governments.

“Some member states believed that this was not the right way forward at this point,” an EU official in Brussels said. After discussions with ministers, the bloc decided not to pursue the initiative, the official said.

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Some member states believed that this was not the right way forward at this point.

According to dpa information confirmed to Der Spiegel by EU sources, the German and Italian governments had opposed the group. Kallas had intended to place it under her patronage and charge it with finding faster, more effective ways to close gaps in Europe’s conventional military capabilities.

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

The proposed members included senior political and military representatives from several EU countries, as well as Britain and Ukraine. They were due to be presented on Monday morning, but the planned launch was canceled.

The European External Action Service said it would not ease its focus on defense. It will now examine new ways to cooperate with EU member states, the official said. “The diagnosis has not changed: Europe must move faster on defense,” the official said. “We do not want to look back in a few years and realize that Europe focused so heavily on where it needed to be in 2035 that it failed to do what was necessary in 2027.”

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