Brussels has decided to take a qualitative leap in defense. After months of warnings about “Europe’s vulnerability,” the European Commission has presented its roadmap to achieve “full military readiness” by 2030, with ambitious projects such as the European Space Shield and the so-called anti-drone wall on the EU’s eastern flank.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has described the initiative as a “necessary response” to an environment of “growing threats.” But experts consulted by europeanconservative.com question its feasibility and warn that defense is becoming a new instrument of political centralization within the Union.
The Commission plans to launch the Space Shield in the second half of 2026, as part of a defense program extending through 2030. Its goal: to protect Europe’s space assets and services against interference, cyberattacks, and orbital spoofing. According to the Brussels document, the project will combine national and commercial satellites into a coordinated defense network under European supervision.
The Space Shield joins other ongoing programs such as Galileo—the ‘European GPS’—Copernicus for Earth observation, and IRIS2, the EU’s planned alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink system. Collectively, Brussels aims to build a framework of technological sovereignty that, beyond defense, will strengthen the Commission’s political and strategic control over Europe’s orbital infrastructure.
The exact cost of the Space Shield remains uncertain, but it is expected to require billions of euros and several years to deploy. Analysts are increasingly concerned that the project forms part of the €800 billion in defense investments the Commission has pledged to mobilize by 2030—without yet clarifying where the money will come from or how it will be managed.
Parallel to the Space Shield, Brussels is promoting its ‘anti-drone wall,’ an aerial defense network designed to protect the EU’s eastern borders. The plan foresees full operational capability by the end of 2027, while the accompanying eastern surveillance system to be deployed a year later.
Von der Leyen has emphasized that “Europe must protect every square centimeter of its territory,” referring to recent drone incursions—allegedly by Russia—into the airspace of Poland, Germany, and Denmark. Yet beyond the rhetoric, the project appears designed to strengthen Brussels’ institutional control over national defense capabilities.
The Commission’s roadmap calls for coalitions among member states for joint procurement of weapons and technology, a formula that effectively dilutes national military sovereignty in favor of supranational structures. “Act swiftly when a joint approach is more effective,” the document states. In practice, this means more power for the European bureaucracy and less room for national decision-making in defense policy.
The rise of European defense occurs in a political context where military integration is presented as a natural response to external threats. Yet what some interpret as a logical step toward strategic autonomy, others view as a new opportunity for Brussels to consolidate its power.
The plan goes beyond military cooperation. It includes strengthening the European industrial base, creating a “single defense market,” and harmonizing regulations to enable rapid and large-scale responses to crises. In other words, a progressive federalization of defense under the banner of security.
Von der Leyen has made it clear that defense “will be one of the pillars of the next multiannual financial framework (2028–2034),” with a combined budget of €131 billion for defense and space. This budget not only consolidates the Commission’s authority in the military domain but also reinforces its political weight vis-à-vis the member states.
