Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen argued that raising European Union defense spending by €800 billion through the ReArm Europe program—unveiled last week—may not be enough on its own to meet today’s geopolitical challenges. Instead, Brussels must also raise its level of general preparedness for war, she said in a speech on Sunday, March 9th to mark the first 100 days of her second presidency.
That is why the European Commission will create a new meeting format called the “Security College,” which will sit “often”—although without a fixed schedule. It plans to provide EU commissioners with frequent security briefings, including the latest comprehensive intelligence reports on various threats, from cyber- to hybrid attacks.
“We need to switch to a preparedness mindset,” according to von der Leyen, explaining the new model. “Only if we have a clear and in-depth understanding of the threats, including hybrid threats, can we effectively contribute to collective security.”
It’s worth noting that the EU had already established its own limited “civilian intelligence” network under the External Action Service (EEAS) over a decade ago, called the EU Intelligence and Situation Center (EU INTCEN), which is responsible for providing general intelligence analyses to the Foreign Affairs High Representative.
However, this new structure—that will include the entire College throughout regular meetings—indicates that Brussels plans to step it up a notch and either expand its own in-house intelligence gathering and analysis service or include additional, more professional outside sources.
What’s more, having frequent meetings to discuss new intelligence only makes sense if the EU is also prepared to act on them. In other words, this is yet another step toward more centralized and deeper European integration in defense, which is supposed to be strictly national competence.
That’s exactly what the European Parliament (EP) is also pushing for, at least the ‘Ursula coalition’ who make up the majority in Brussels—the centrist EPP, the socialist S&D, and liberal Renew. Later this week, the Parliament will vote on (and most likely adopt) a resolution to call “for the development of a fully capable European Pillar of NATO able to act autonomously whenever needed.”
This autonomous European “pillar” of NATO would not be the worst idea if it wasn’t explicitly meant as a first step toward a Brussels-controlled EU army.
In their resolution, the mainstream parties “deplore” member states’ reluctance to agree to ambitious European military cooperation, and propose that as a first step toward integration, they should at least create an “EU crisis response air fleet” comprising military transport aircraft “held at EU level.”
In truth, this wouldn’t be the first step, as the EU already has been developing a 5,000-strong limited rapid crisis response unit under the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) for years, called the European Union Battlegroup (EUBG). Its command center is set to be fully operational later this year.
In addition to the €150 billion joint loan the Commission wants to take out for defense, the EP will also call for exploring the possibility of member states using a European defense bond system “to finance large-scale military investments upfront”—which would mean the EU taking out further debt and transferring the money to individual member states upon request—as well as reallocating the remaining pandemic relief funds for defense.
War frenzy has also reached the European Central Bank (ECB), which appears to be wavering in its resistance to seizing Russia’s €200 billion worth of frozen reserve assets, sitting primarily in Belgium. The EU is already using the profits they generated since 2022 to pay for the interest on the G7’s €50 billion loan to Ukraine, but ECB President Christine Lagarde has so far resisted the calls to touch the actual sum to avoid damaging the global credibility of the euro as a reserve currency.
However, Lagarde now has to face mounting pressure from the inside as well. Last week, Bank of Latvia governor Mārtiņš Kazāks became the first member of the ECB Governing Council to endorse the outright seizure of Russian assets, calling it a “viable option” to help Ukraine continue the fight.
