“If Europe wants to survive, it has to be armed,” Tusk told a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday. “There is no alternative — Europe must start defending itself and therefore it must start spending European money on defense.”
The Polish leader’s comments come as Russia’s war on Ukraine, taking place on the EU’s eastern border, approaches the three-year mark. US President Donald Trump, who took office this week, has also ratcheted up his spending demands for NATO allies, saying he expects at least 5% of economic output to go to defense — more than twice the alliance’s current 2% benchmark.
Tusk said the EU should be flexible, creative and determined to “radically” boost military outlays and protect itself from “potential missile threats” — and build up defenses along its eastern frontier. Poland has made increased security the top priority of its six-month rotating EU presidency, which runs through June.
EU nations, led by Germany, have so far rebuffed calls to use joint debt to finance defense spending, even as pressure to move forward with such plans grows with Trump back in the White House.
“In these times of existential danger, we should not limit our defenses to match our finances. It’s the other way round: we need to mobilize our finances to match our defense needs,” EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said Wednesday during an event at the European Defense Agency.
Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top diplomat, told the same venue in Brussels that after producing strategic documents and road maps, “it’s time we move beyond to more missiles, tanks, and ships.”
In Strasbourg, Tusk said the world’s largest trading bloc with nearly 450 million people was going through a period of “disorientation” and a “crisis of spirit” as Trump’s return raises questions about the future of US involvement in shoring up the continent’s security. He called on European nations to shoulder more of the burden, paraphrasing both former US President John F. Kennedy as well as Trump.
“Ask not what America can do for Europe and its security – ask what we ourselves can do for it,” Tusk said. “Europe was, is, and will always be great.”
(Updates with call for EU financing of defense as well as comments from Brussels, starting from the first paragraph.)
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European Union, defense spending, Donald Tusk, NATO allies, military outlays
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