Geopolitical Europe Pulse: EU Defence White Paper and more
21 March 2025
This week, the European Commission has published its White Paper on the future of European defence — and as many EU strategy documents, the document mostly points to future initiatives that can be expected over the next months and years. This Geopolitical Europe Pulse brings you a compilation of information on the content of the White Paper, its implications, and the next steps for EU defence.
White Paper: The document is certainly a dream for lovers of the EU defence alphabet soup. On the substance, it clearly shows that the EU does not have the ambition to level up as a military actor itself. The responsibility remains with the member states, whereas the Commission’s role consists in facilitating cooperation and providing funding. This ambition is also reflected in the name, “Readiness 2030” — the Commission’s objective is to empower member states to prepare for the future security challenges, not to take on that task itself. The wording of the White Paper is unambiguous in this regard, and illustrates the reluctance of member states to strengthen the Commission’s role: “Member States will always retain responsibility for their own troops, from doctrine to deployment, and for the definition needs of their armed forces. Furthermore, the EU will always act in a way that is without prejudice to the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States and taking into consideration the security and defence interests of all Member States.”
Key elements of the White Paper are:
The identification of European capability gaps: the Commission identifies seven key areas member states should concentrate their efforts on, namely air and missile defence, artillery systems, ammunition and missiles, drones and counter-drone systems, military mobility, AI, quantum, cyber and electronic warfare, and strategic enablers and critical infrastructure protection.
The Security Action Plan for Europe (SAFE), which includes a 150 billion loan from the Commission to support member states in defence acquisitions and procurement.
A Strategic Dialogue with the defence industry, which will be followed by a Defence Omnibus Simplification Proposal in June 2025. The objective: regulatory facilitation and harmonisation to create a better environment for the European defence industry.
Elements on readiness and preparation: improving military mobility, creating strategic stockpiles
The “Porcupine Strategy” of European support for Ukraine: delivering at least 2 million artillery rounds per year, launching a 2-track Air Defence Initiative with Ukraine, continuing training, supporting the Ukrainian defence industry, strengthen military mobility, provide more space assets and services.
A webinar explaining everything on the White Paper: The Atlantic Council webinar “The Future of EU defence” deciphers the key elements of the White Paper, puts it in the broader context of EU and European defence efforts and outlines the key challenges.
European Council in Brussels: Also related to European defence this week are the Council Conclusions (20 March), which now reflect the split between Hungary and other EU member states on European support for Ukraine even more clearly than before. Leaders of all EU member states excluding Hungary will also meet in Paris on Thursday, 27 March, to discuss further steps on European support for Ukraine. The interesting question as of this morning: will the UK and Türkiye be part of this meeting?
EU preference, European preference, or just spending money? A key debate related to the EU’s increased defence funding is whether this money should only be used for procurement in the EU, whether procurement could be opened to a group of European non-EU member states - especially Türkiye and the United Kingdom -, or whether there should not be any restrictions at all on the spending. In Carnegie Europe’s Taking the Pulse, experts weigh in.