Why the EU needs a little help from its friends on defence and security

Good morning. Today, I preview the defence-focused summit of European leaders that begins in Brussels in a few hours. And our energy correspondent reveals demands for the European Commission to be tougher on member states who breach internal market rules.

Battle plans

Europe’s leaders will gather in Brussels today to brainstorm ways to ramp up the continent’s defence capabilities, as pressure on them to reduce their reliance on the US intensifies.

Context: The one-day summit of EU leaders will focus on security, defence and transatlantic relations, with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also in attendance.

The special guests at the EU-hosted event in Brussels’ Egmont Palace are signs of where the debate is heading.

Most officials reckon that a long-term replacement for a reduced US military presence in Europe could be a “coalition of the willing”, which would pool investments and capabilities, to fill the biggest gaps most efficiently and maximise the impact of the money spent.

If Russia’s war against Ukraine hasn’t already made it clear that Europe needs to strengthen its own security and defence, US President Donald Trump’s demand for defence spending to hit 5 per cent of GDP, his trade threats against the EU and his campaign to annex Greenland have made it stark.

There is no shortage of ideas on how to do so. What’s required is a serious conversation on which have the broadest support.

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for example, wants to exempt defence spending from the EU’s strict spending and deficit rules, and jointly raise new funding of at least €100bn.

“Spending more on defence must, however, go hand-in-hand with increased efficiency,” he writes in the FT today.

German officials said they expected today’s talks would “include strengthening defence capabilities in the EU, particularly the industrial base, and in the long term, aspects of financing and strengthening and deepening partnerships”.

Starmer, who hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for bilateral talks yesterday, will use today’s meeting to pitch “an ambitious UK-EU defence and security partnership with a number of steps to increase co-operation on shared threats”, his office said.

Yet don’t expect much in the way of concrete outcomes.

Officials plan for the summit’s discussions to shape a policy paper on Europe’s defence industry that the European Commission is currently working on. Leaders are then expected to agree binding pledges at their next summit in June.

“If our union is to remain a pole of peace and stability, we must put in place a robust, unified and credible deterrence capability,” Mitsotakis writes. “There is no time to lose.”

Chart du jour: Trade war

The EU has said it regrets US President Donald Trump’s decision to hit Canada, Mexico and China with sweeping tariffs, and said it would “respond firmly” if he expands the trade measures to Europe.

Law and order 

Thirteen EU member states want the European Commission to impose harder punishments on countries breaching the rules of the single market, writes Alice Hancock.

Context: The EU’s free internal market is one of the core tenets of the union since its inception in 1957. But there are still many hurdles to the smooth flow of people, goods, services and capital across EU countries — including countries flouting the common rules.

In his report on the state of the single market last year, former Italian premier Enrico Letta said the EU’s “lack of integration” in many sectors was “a primary reason for Europe’s declining competitiveness”.

In a paper seen by the FT, countries including Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal argue that the rules promoting smooth business across the continent should be better enforced, preventing companies from complying with 27 different systems.

The paper is to be circulated ahead of a meeting of industry ministers in Warsaw today.

The 13 signatories write that the commission “seems to shy away from taking enforcement action, which may undermine the credibility of the single market”.

“Unfortunately, the most powerful action, the infringement procedure, has not been used fully in recent years . . . creating a culture in which common rules can be easily circumvented without risk of punishment,” the countries added.

According to the commission’s yearly law enforcement review, there was a 60 per cent drop in infringement proceedings launched by its internal market and industry directorate in 2023, compared with 2019 — the biggest drop in infringement proceedings by any directorate.

The commission said that president Ursula von der Leyen had made enforcement of EU law one of her “top priorities”.

What to watch today

1. EU leaders meet for an informal summit with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte.

2. Rutte meets separately with Starmer and with Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán.

3. Informal meeting of EU trade and industry ministers in Warsaw.

4. Belgium’s new federal government is sworn in.

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