A screen is seen during the International military anti drone exercise Baltic Trust 25 (BATT25) at the Selonia (Selija) military training ground near Viesite on August 27, 2025.
Gints Ivuskans / AFP
Member states agree it’s time to spend more on defense but the ‘drone wall’ is still a sticking point.
The European Commission is preparing to unveil a comprehensive ‘roadmap’ for implementing the European Union’s defense capability development program, on Thursday, October 16th, an EU official familiar with the process said, noting that the draft document will first be discussed at a meeting of the College of European Commissioners before being formally introduced.
To be “2030 ready,” Europe needs to act now, the European Commission is urging its member states. “Europe must urgently equip itself with a strategic capacity, developed and maintained together, capable of responding in real time,” Brussels stressed ahead of the Thursday announcement. While the document shared with the member states speaks in broad terms, the message is clear: Europe must reinforce military readiness on its eastern flank.
The plan builds on a month of high-level discussions. At the EU summit in Copenhagen on October 1–2 , European leaders once again demonstrated that their response to the war in Ukraine is not primarily diplomacy, but feeding the war machine. Behind the rhetoric of “peace,” Brussels is driving the bloc toward deeper militarization, centralization, and a posture that risks prolonging and widening the conflict. Proposals such as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘drone wall’ to guard against Russia were debated extensively.
“Everyone knows now that drones have changed the whole idea of a war,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said during the summit, adding, “Cross-border we have to invest in drone technology, in countering drones.” EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius described the drone wall as an “immediate priority,” but the EU’s “big four”—Germany, France, Italy, and Spain—were more cautious. France’s Emmanuel Macron warned that the project “should not and could not be rushed” given its complexity, while Italy’s Giorgia Meloni highlighted the vastness of the EU’s borders. Spain’s Pedro Sánchez and Germany’s Friedrich Merz declined to comment directly.
Despite these reservations, the general message of continued support for Ukraine’s war efforts was reinforced when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joined EU leaders for a joint press conference. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz underscored the bloc’s stance, saying leaders showed “great determination to continue helping Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, Thursday’s unveiling of the Readiness 2030–ReArm Europe roadmap is set to translate the rhetoric of readiness into concrete action. The EU Commission is expected to propose four pan-European defense projects requiring significant investment. The most pressing are the European Drone Wall and the Eastern Flank Watch, which aims to bolster frontline states’ ability to counter hybrid threats and drone incursions.
EU leaders will meet again in Brussels on October 23–24 to assess progress on defense readiness and to set guidance for top-priority actions.
Zolta Győri is a journalist at europeanconservative.com.
