The violations of European airspace by drones linked to the Russian Federation require urgent measures that the EU Commission intends to adopt in the coming days. The last episode, the day before yesterday, at Copenhagen airport a few days before the summit of European heads of state and government to be held in the Danish capital on 1 October, led the European Commission to relaunch the need for a 'drone wall' to protect the Union's borders. "The latest attacks in Romania, Poland, Estonia, and now Denmark have targeted four Member States, and that's precisely why we'll be working on this drone wall," a Commission spokesperson said.
Next Friday the EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius, will meet with representatives of seven frontline Member States: Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Denmark. The goal is to improve drone detection to determine the response once they are detected. "We cannot wait for events to hit us before acting: collective political will is needed," the Commission emphasizes, confirming that resources already exist, such as funds from the Safe programme (an acronym which stands for “Security action for Europe”), security action for Europe, with a budget of 150 billion for loans at subsidized rates), with 43 billion already allocated to Poland and 17 to Romania.
Safe Program: what does the regulation provide?
But the Safe program regulations for joint defense procurement provide for project submissions until March 2026, and it's highly likely that only existing contracts, not new projects, will be finalized by that date. In a joint document read overnight between Monday and Tuesday at the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Nordic and Baltic countries emphasized that "the defense of the principles of sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity enshrined in the United Nations Charter This is an issue that concerns all of us, not just Ukraine. The entire international community must demand that Russia end its war of aggression.”
The document calls on the international community to to isolate the Russian Federation and Belarus more decisively and to tighten sanctions against them in order to limit the proceeds from which the war in Ukraine is being fueled. The statement also called for them to defend the values of the United Nations Charter and to oppose the recognition of the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia. A concern shared by the President of the European Council Antonio Costa. "I was concerned to hear Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speak about the unidentified drones spotted near Copenhagen Airport," he wrote on X Costa. "Denmark knows it can count on Europe's full solidarity. The EU must be able to protect its critical infrastructure."
This is a topic that will be at the heart of the informal summit of EU leaders in Copenhagen on October 1st: "We will work to strengthen our common European defense capability," Costa explained. In the letter sent to the 27 heads of government ahead of the Copenhagen summit, Costa explains that "we will focus on two issues: strengthening common European defence readiness and strengthening our support for Ukraine.” The recent violations of Polish and Romanian airspace by Russia, Costa observes, are a forceful reminder that we must accelerate and intensify our efforts.
The direction of travel is clear: to decisively strengthen Europe's common defence readiness by 2030. In recent months, Costa writes, "we have taken important steps to boost defence financing, support our industrial base and to commit ourselves to making joint efforts on capability development, particularly regarding increased interoperability, joint procurement, and demand aggregation, with a view to achieving economies of scale. This work is carried out in full coherence with NATO and focuses on the nine priority areas agreed at EU level.
If we invest more, we must equally invest more efficiently and rationally, also using common tools such as SafeEvery euro should strengthen our common security and strategic autonomy. It's also about strengthening the European defense industry, stimulating innovation, increasing competitiveness, and creating jobs.
Likewise, we must learn from the lessons of the war in Ukraine, including by strengthening cooperation with the Ukrainian defense industry, drawing on Ukraine's unique experience. According to Costa, the time has come to "take a leap forward." This is why concrete measures must emerge from Copenhagen, starting with the possibility of accelerating the joint development of capabilities and better using the "lead nation" model for priority projects, moving on to support for our eastern flank and governance that ensures effective political oversight and coordination, particularly to identify capability gaps and measure progress, including through intermediate milestones. European defense and Ukraine will then be the focus of the next European Council, to be held in Brussels at the end of October, where the guidelines of the 27 will be formalized.
Meanwhile, as von der Leyen herself announced a few weeks ago, the entire Safe plan to finance the European defense industry has been subscribed by the member states. This involves, the Commission President explained, joint procurement for air and missile defense and drones. In the new EU budget, defense spending has been increased fivefold. Funding for military mobility increased tenfoldBut the European Commission was recently asked to find new funds of €1,5 billion, intended as a liquidity injection for the EU's defense industry. The details of the plan are currently being negotiated between the Commission, the Council of the EU, and the European Parliament. But some states claim the promised €1,5 billion is just "peanuts."
Common European defense debt? Denmark is holding back.
Finally a “cold shower” came from the Danish presidency on the possibility of create (as proposed by the Draghi report) common debt for defenseAt the latest Ecofin meeting in Copenhagen, Danish Economy Minister Stephanie Loser put the brakes on the project: "We have just started implementing the Safe program – he said – and I think it is important to see how this tool is progressing. We support the tool Safe, we think it's already very important to have this tool." "We can't be happy as long as there's untapped growth potential," Lose observed. "To be competitive," she added, "we need to do things together, at the European level, and each Member State must do them at the national level."
As for SAFE, one of the pillars of the ReArm Europe/Readiness Plan 2030, The project aims to mobilize up to 800 billion euros over four years. Italy will receive 14,9 billion euros of the total 150 billion. Poland stands out in first place, with 43,7 billion allocated, followed by Romania (16,8), France, and Hungary (16,2 billion each). Each country will now have to provide a "detailed plan" (by November) on how it intends to use the funding. External evaluators from the EU Commission will then examine the projects to ensure they meet the criteria set out in the EU regulation. If everything goes according to plan, the European Council will approve them by the end of the year, and the money will begin to be transferred to member states in the first quarter of 2026.
Joint procurement should focus on defense product categories where production needs to be increased: munitions and missiles; artillery systems; ground combat capabilities and related support systems, including soldier equipment and infantry weapons; critical infrastructure protection; cyber issues; and military mobility. But also: air and missile defense systems; surface and underwater maritime capabilities; drones and anti-drone systems. A key aspect of Safe is the “European preference” clause (Buy European) aimed at incentivizing European production and reducing dependence on foreign suppliers.
An indication already taken literally by Germany, whose new military procurement plan foresees directing the massive rearmament campaign mainly towards European industry, with only 8% destined for American weapons. This is a hard blow for Washington Germany, which, within NATO and during trade negotiations, has pressured European countries to continue purchasing weapons from the United States despite geopolitical turbulence emanating from the White House, has announced its procurement plan, which includes contracts worth nearly €83 billion over the next year, according to a list compiled for the German Parliament's Budget Committee, detailing 154 major defense purchases between September 2025 and December 2026.
The only large-scale projects with American contractors are about €150 million for torpedoes mounted on Boeing's P-8A aircraft and about €5,1 billion for Raytheon's MIM-104 Patriot air defense missiles and launchers. In recent years, Germany has been one of the largest buyers of weapons For Washington. Between 2020 and 2024, Berlin signed arms contracts with US companies worth over $17 billion, reaching a record $13,9 billion in 2023 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, making Germany one of the world's leading destinations for US arms exports, along with Poland and Japan. Now, however, Germany appears to be focusing on European industry.
