In an increasingly difficult and dangerous geopolitical environment, Europeans want a safer Union with greater defensive capacity. 77% of EU citizens are in favor of a common security and defense policy of the Twenty-Seven, according to the latest Eurobarometer, published this Thursday. What’s more, up to 71% consider that the community bloc should also strengthen the capacity of the military industry; a rearmament about which European leaders have been in intense discussions for months.
The survey “shows that the European population wants the EU to be stronger and more independent, especially in the face of current global challenges,” the survey highlights. Its results are known two weeks before a European election where security is playing a leading role, since the members of the European institutions that emerge from the polls in June will have to make key decisions in this matter, in the middle of Russia’s war against Ukraine. and other threats, such as the Middle East conflict, with no resolution in sight.
In fact, the Eurobarometer corroborates that security and defense are the “priority area” of EU action in the medium term for 34% of Europeans, thus placing it as the main priority at the level of the Twenty-Seven, followed by climate and environment (30%) and, in third place, the issue of health (26%). Although in Spain the priorities are different – security and defense is only a priority for 14% of Spaniards, much more concerned about employment or health – the respondents do reach almost the same percentage (70, compared to 71% of European average) when they are asked if they see it necessary to strengthen the capacity to produce military equipment.
In the short term, the issue of security becomes even more pressing in the EU: almost half of Europeans, 46%, believe that ensuring peace and stability will have the greatest positive impact in the short term, well ahead from concerns about guaranteeing food, health and industrial supplies in the EU (pointed out by 28% of respondents) or creating more employment opportunities and managing migration (26%).
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An example of the increasingly predominant role of security in the European imagination is that it has also been one of the main topics of the debate between the main candidates of the European formations to preside over the European Commission held this Thursday. A debate in which almost all participants – representatives of all groups in the European Parliament, except the far-right ECR and ID – have recognized the need to work more on this matter.
The current president of the European Commission and candidate for the European People’s Party (EPP) to repeat the position, Ursula von der Leyen, has even spoken out in favor of a proposal from Poland and Greece to build an “air defense shield.” that protects the common European airspace from all types of threats, from planes to missiles or drones.
A shield over the EU sky
The Greek prime ministers, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the Polish prime ministers, Donald Tusk, have sent the German a letter proposing the creation of a “flagship program” within the EU on air defense that “addresses this great vulnerability.” ” in European “security”, they emphasize. “Geopolitical and technological developments on the periphery of Europe and beyond, the wars on our continent and in the rest of the world, teach us lessons that we cannot continue to ignore: we have to develop a highly capable air defense system that acts as an element credible deterrent against any possible aggressor,” they explain in the letter, which Morning Express has been able to consult.
A program of this type, they emphasize, “would send a clear signal that Europe is united and determined to act in self-defense, to protect itself, and that Europe is a global power whose economic strength is reinforced by military power, which is a force powerful to take into account.”
The vice-president of the Commission for the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, also elaborated on the need to strengthen European defense during a breakfast held this same day by the New Economy Forum in Brussels.
“Now we know that in Europe it will be impossible in the future to rely on others to assume our defense forever; “Very few in Brussels or other European capitals believe that there will always be an umbrella that protects us,” he said and warned: “If we want to remain relevant and sovereign, this is the time for European defense.”
For the Greek commissioner, from the same political family as Von der Leyen, what is required is a “big dealin Franco-German defense”, a great agreement between the two European powers that defines the parameters, “what we are going to do, what to do and with what money”, and that, he pointed out, should be achieved soon so that it can be integrated into the agenda of the European Council and thus forms part of the framework in which the Twenty-Seven will elect the new Commission after the June elections. “Europe may be defensive in defence, but we need an honest debate about this, and the time is now,” she stressed.
According to the Eurobarometer, for which more than 26,000 people in the 27 Member States were polled between April 3 and 28, almost seven in ten European citizens (69%) are also in favor of a common foreign policy. More than two-thirds, 67%, consider the EU to be a “place of stability in a turbulent world” and 69% believe that the EU has sufficient power and tools to defend Europe’s economic interests in the global economy.
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