EU Defence Commissioner: Europe’s Armies Only Half as Strong as NATO Needs

The European Union’s top defence official has issued a stark warning that European armies are currently operating at just half the level required to meet NATO targets, The Gaze reports, citing the interviews with Andrius Kubilius on Euractiv.

Andrius Kubilius, the commissioner responsible for defence and space policy, said that European militaries “are at 50% of what we need to have now, according to NATO’s targets”, underlining the urgent need for increased defence investment.

In response, the European Commission is pushing forward plans to boost defence spending and support joint borrowing initiatives among EU countries. One such effort, the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), aims to raise €150 billion in loans to accelerate military procurement.

Kubilius also raised concerns about Europe’s continued dependence on American-made weapons. Although the share of EU defence budgets spent on U.S. arms has dropped from 60% to 40% in the past year, he stressed the need to keep reducing that reliance. 

“I cannot imagine that we will not buy anything American anymore, but diminishing that number by 10% or 20% means that a huge amount of money will stay for the European industry,” he said.

The commissioner outlined a long-term vision of strengthening the European defence sector by incentivising governments to buy locally: “If we manage to incentivise member states also to spend more on European products, it means less for American products, slowly.”

Kubilius also highlighted the benefits of joint military procurement, calling it a top priority for the European Commission. “If member states are going for joint procurement, which means bigger contracts, on average production price goes down to 70%,” he said.

Efforts to build a more globally competitive European defence industry are already under way, with Kubilius noting that “some mergers are already happening,” and signalling support for further consolidation.

Looking ahead, the commissioner plans to launch a proposal for a European Defence Union this autumn — a framework that could include Norway, the UK, and Ukraine. This initiative, he said, could be modelled after the “European Energy Union”: “We can borrow some examples from that experience.”

The Commission has earmarked €131 billion for defence and space in its proposed 2028–34 budget. While Kubilius declined to provide a full breakdown, he confirmed the funding would cover critical materials and other strategic sectors: “We have our estimations of what, ideally, we would need, and €131 billion is not far away from that. But we need to understand that a majority of the money for defence is coming from the national level.”

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