Europe must defend its own security: Expert

By Selen Valente Rasquinho and Melike Pala

BRUSSELS/ANKARA (AA) - European countries must be "able" and "willing" to defend their own security, according to Peter Hefele, policy director at the Brussels-based think tank Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies.

“We Europeans have to be able and willing to defend our own security as we, for too long, have relied on the security umbrella of the United States,” Hefele told Anadolu.

Stressing the “absolute” importance of the EU reestablishing peace in Europe amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, he said: “At the same time, we see the evolution of new hybrid warfare, and Europe still has a long way to go to understand and react accordingly.”

Hefele also emphasized the need for Europe to strengthen its defense, industrial, and research capabilities. He noted that US and UK providers will continue to play a “crucial” role in meeting the needs of the European defense sector over the next decade.

- Europe to continue focus on Russia-Ukraine war

Regarding foreign policy challenges, Hefele said: “Europe’s focus will remain on Ukraine and the confrontation with Russia.”

He expressed doubts about Europe taking on a significant role in the reconstruction of Syria and Gaza, aside from humanitarian support.

He highlighted that Europe should shift its focus to the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, saying: “This means engaging in a different and much more sophisticated way with key players, such as Türkiye, Egypt, and Morocco.”

- ⁠’Member states are reluctant’

Juraj Majcin, a policy analyst at the European Policy Center (EPC) in Brussels, said that NATO holds the primary responsibility for Europe’s defense, adding that the new European Commission’s defense member portfolio would be limited to increasing the production capacity of the defense industry and technology, as well as making the defense industry more cohesive.

Majcin noted that new Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius will face challenges, saying: “Notably, member states are still reluctant to share information on the state of their defense capabilities and defense industries with the EU Commission.”

- ⁠'Europe cannot determine its own foreign policy'

American journalist and international relations analyst Patrick Henningsen also remarked that PESCO and European collective defense were advancing rapidly until the Ukraine war in 2022.

The war in Ukraine “changed everything, putting PESCO and European defense on the permanent back burner, and everything has been about NATO ever since,” he said.

“Suddenly, NATO became the dominant institution steering, really the direction and the destiny of Europe, if you look at the geopolitics of this, but also looking at the economics and energy security issues.”

“If NATO is the dominant institution driving the direction of the European economy, European security, European energy policy, there’s only one problem. Who sits at the top of NATO? It’s not any European country. It’s the United States and the UK,” Henningsen said.

Noting that people tend to believe Europe is independent, Henningsen said: "That is not the case. No country in Europe can sign its own energy deals with whomever it wants. Europe cannot determine its own foreign policy."

* Writing by Serdar Dincel