European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Europe should be ready to use force decisively and proactively to defend itself, and it should learn from the example of Ukraine.
She said this in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.
During her speech, the EC President emphasized the need for a new European security strategy, in particular, to develop a new doctrine: "to ensure that Europe can defend its own territory, economy, democracy and way of life at all times."
"Because this is ultimately the true meaning of independence," she said.
Von der Leyen cited Ukraine as an example, which, in her words, "demonstrated that strength and deterrence and ultimately lives depend on industrial capacity."
"They say in Ukraine, 'you change or die'. We must adopt this mantra too. We need to tear down the rigid wall between the civilian and defence sectors. Europe is a powerhouse for car manufacturing, aerospace and heavy machinery. We should not look at these industries as purely commercial but as core to the defence and the defence value chain," she said.
Another lesson to be learned from the battlefield in Ukraine is to stimulate dual-use technology industries such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, drones and space.
"And with this approach, we can close our capability gaps quickly. Drones, for example, are the most obvious of these examples. They are inflicting around 80% of battlefield damage on both sides in Ukraine. So we are massively investing and speeding up innovation and production in this area," von der Leyen added.
In this context, she also pointed to the new EU Defence Innovation Office in Kyiv, which is "merging European scale with Ukrainian speed and ingenuity."
"Some ask whether we can afford this. But I say we cannot afford not to," von der Leyen said.
The President of the European Commission mentioned the slow decision-making in Europe and said that the EU should rely on qualified majority support rather than unanimous votes to circumvent attempts by individual countries to block certain steps.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will hold meetings in Munich, Germany, on Saturday, February 14, with US officials, the NATO Secretary General, the British Prime Minister and make several public appearances.
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