Russia warns EU chief’s plans for new defence union signal confrontation

Kremlin says proposal by Ursula von der Leyen ahead of her re-election bid shows Europe’s ‘militarisation’.

Russia has warned that the European Union is growing more militarised and confrontational as a top bloc official outlined plans for a new defence union.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a second term, said she hoped to launch a European Defence Union to deal with cross-border threats over the next five years, starting with a “European Air Shield and cyber defence”.

“We will ensure that these major projects are open to all and we will use all of the tools at our disposal – both regulatory and financial – to ensure they are designed, built and deployed on European soil as quickly as possible,” she said in a document setting out her programme before a European Parliament vote on Thursday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the proposal demonstrates von der Leyen’s “changing priorities” and the EU’s “military colouring”.

“[It] confirms the general attitude of European states to militarisation, escalation of tension, confrontation and reliance on confrontational methods in their foreign policy,” said Peskov.

“Everything is quite obvious here.”

The Kremlin spokesman added that while Russia did not pose a threat to the EU, actions by its member states regarding Ukraine “have excluded any possibility of dialogue and consideration of Russia’s concerns”.

“These are the realities in which we have to live, and this forces us to configure our foreign policy approaches accordingly,” Peskov said.

Re-election bid

Von der Leyen, who needs 361 votes in the 720-seat European Parliament to stay in office, put security at the heart of her re-election pitch, stressing the need for a “strong Europe” during a “period of deep anxiety and uncertainty”.

She reiterated the EU’s support for Ukraine in its 28-month war with Russia and slammed a recent visit to Moscow by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban – whose country holds the rotating EU presidency – as an “appeasement mission”.

Von der Leyen also said she would create a new commissioner to tackle Europe’s housing crisis, “strengthen” the EU’s border agency Frontex and battle disinformation.

“The union needs its own structure dedicated to the fight against manipulation of information and foreign interference,” von der Leyen said.

The former German defence minister has led the European Commission since 2019, becoming the first woman to hold the post.

She belongs to the biggest political group in the Parliament, the conservative European People’s Party, which is in a centrist coalition with the Socialists and Democrats and the liberal Renew Europe groups.

Together, the coalition should have the numbers to get her re-elected, but some lawmakers from her own party have indicated they may not toe the line. Still, her supporters believe she can seal the deal by picking up votes from the Greens and the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists she has held negotiations with.

If a majority of the lawmakers reject her candidacy, it would leave leaders of the 27-nation bloc scrambling to find a replacement.