Can Europe ensure its autonomy in defense? The question arises acutely after the Trump administration's attacks and pressures on European democracies, when the conflict in Ukraine launched by Vladimir Putin enters his fourth year.
The subject turns out to be thorny because, almost thirty-five years after the end of the Cold War, military spending of the vast majority of states of the Old Continent have dropped sharply. Today, the European armed forces are no longer deemed independent or ready for a high intensity conflict.
The “rearmer Europe” plan, recently presented by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the Special Modernization Fund for the Bundeswehr in Germany or the 2024-2030 military programming law in France, testify to the will of European leaders to reinvest strategic questions from Washington. But beyond funding, rearming the continent is also an unprecedented industrial and technological challenge for European economies.
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Source: Lemonde